As per Steam’s latest hardware survey statistics for August, Windows 11 has finally taken the top spot as the most popular operating system. It has been almost three years since Windows 11 was released, so it’s about time Microsoft’s latest version of the OS took over. One reason why could be a recent performance upgrade, but you can also argue that the impending drop in support for Windows 10 finally has people shifting.
According to Steam’s latest numbers, the number of Windows 11 users increased by 3.36%, and at the same time, Windows 10 users dipped by 3.07% in August. So, at the moment, Windows 11 OS is being used by a majority of 49.17% of users.
Can you attribute the surge to AMD’s recent performance boost?
The bump in the numbers could be because of the latest update patch that boosted AMD CPU’s gaming performance. “Seriously, most gamers don’t know anything about 24h2 or AMD performance,” one Reddit user commented. In case you missed it, earlier this month, AMD rolled out a new branch prediction optimization patch for Windows 11 24H2, which helped boost the gaming performance of (primarily) Zen 5 and Zen 4 CPUs. The same patch was also released for Windows 11 23H2 via backporting.
While AMD did not specify the exact % of a performance boost, the company did say that patch will benefit Zen 5, Zen 4, and Zen 3 processors, with Zen 5 getting the biggest boost.
Considering that users taking the Steam hardware survey are gamers, it makes sense that these people are likely to have an updated OS. Plus, it should also be noted that AMD’s share in the ‘top processors’ list has been increasing, with a 0.7% rise in August.
Reaction is mixed
On Reddit, people had mixed reactions to the news. Most users noted it took Windows 11 quite a while to get to the top. Some others commented that this rise is just because people are upgrading to the newer OS and don’t have a choice as their devices are getting older. One of the comments read, “hard to measure popularity, when you are basically forced to use it”.
We did see some people claiming they made the jump due to the AMD patch at the very least; on the flipside, many people aren’t aware of the patch at all. Either way, it should also be noted that support for Windows 10 will be ending in October 2025, although Microsoft is known to extend these deadlines.
