URGENT UPDATE: As of October 14, 2025, the end of support for Windows 10 has triggered a significant shift in the gaming landscape, with the operating system’s market share among gamers dropping to alarming lows. Valve’s latest survey reveals that users are rapidly migrating to Windows 11, which now commands 63.57% of the total Steam user base.
This dramatic shift is underscored by a 3.18 percentage point increase for Windows 11 in just one month, while Windows 10 has seen a decline of 3.94 percentage points, leaving it with only 31.14% of Steam participants. Although Windows 10 remains operational for many, the implications of its unsupported status are becoming evident.
According to Valve’s October 2025 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, even with its waning support, a mere 0.09% of users still cling to Windows 10, which many gamers regard as the best version of the operating system ever released. This dwindling group faces increasing difficulties accessing certain features, exacerbating the urgency for a transition to Windows 11.
The broader gaming environment reveals that Windows continues to dominate Steam with a staggering 94.84% market share overall, despite a slight drop of 0.75 points. In stark contrast, Linux holds 3.05% and macOS trails with 2.11%. Among Linux distributions, Arch Linux leads with 0.31% of the market share.
In terms of hardware preferences, the Nvidia RTX 3060 remains the most popular graphics card on Steam, currently holding 4.3% of the market share, although it has slipped by 0.32 points. The laptop variant, RTX 4060, follows closely with 4.1% (-0.33 points). The RTX 3050 rounds out the top three with 2.96% (+0.05 points).
Other notable hardware statistics from the survey include a majority of users opting for 16GB of RAM (41.49%), a 6-core processor (28.69%), and 8GB of video memory (33.46%), all tailored for optimal gaming experiences on a 1080p display.
The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is becoming more pressing as the unsupported OS loses its foothold among gamers. As the gaming community reacts to these shifts, industry analysts and gamers alike are watching closely to see how this migration will shape the future of gaming technology. Stay tuned for further updates on this evolving story.
