As usual, at the beginning of each month, Valve releases its monthly hardware and software survey results, detailing what operating systems and PC components gamers prefer. And since we have no official numbers from Microsoft regarding Windows 11"s popularity, Steam Hardware & Software Survey is a great way to track the operating system"s progress among the gaming audience.
Steam conducts a monthly survey to collect data about what kinds of computer hardware and software our customers are using. Participation in the survey is optional, and anonymous. The information gathered is incredibly helpful to us as we make decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make and products to offer.
According to the July 2023 report, 96.21% (-0.56 points compared with the previous month) of all Steam users prefer Windows over macOS and Linux. 64-bit Windows 10 has 57.87% (-1.56 points), and Windows 11 has 36.67% (+0.92 points). July 2023 is similar to previous months, with Windows 11 steadily climbing up and Windows 10 slowly losing its customers.
Although Windows 7 no longer receives updates and security patches, some users continue accessing Steam from computers running the unsupported 14-year-old operating system. However, that will not last long—Valve plans to pull the plug on old Windows versions and cut off access to Steam on January 1, 2024. Valve claims 1.21% of all Steam customers still use the good-old 64-bit Windows 7 (+0.05 points).
- 64-bit Windows 10 - 57.87% (-1.56 points)
- Windows 11 - 36.67% (+0.92 points)
- 64-bit Windows 7 - 1.21% (+0.05 points)
- 64-bit Windows 8.1 - 0.25% (+0.01 points)
- 32-bit Windows 7 - 0.10% (+0.02 points)
And now to the hardware side of the report:
| Steam Hardware Survey - July 2023 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Processors | Intel | AMD | Microsoft |
| 66.76% (-1.18) | 33.19% (+1.16) | 0.05% (+0.02) | |
| Physical Cores | 6 cores | 4 cores | 8 cores |
| 32.28% (-0.15) | 26.55% (+0.63) | 19.5% (-1.67) | |
| Memory | 16GB | 32GB | 8GB |
| 49.8% (-0.75) | 19.63% (+2.02) | 17.24% (-0.3) | |
| Graphics Cards Models | NVIDIA GTX 1650 | NVIDIA RTX 3060 | NVIDIA GTX 1060 |
| 5.12% (-0.38) | 4.71% (+0.11) | 4.45% (0.00) | |
| Graphics Cards Memory | 8GB | 6GB | 12GB |
| 29.16% (+1.63) | 17.57% (-3.49) | 12.26% (+0.86) | |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 2560 x 1440 | 1366 x 768 |
| 61.47% (-0.53) | 14.09% (+0.86) | 5.2% (+0.26) | |
You can find more information on the official survey page.