After briefly regaining first place on Steam last month, Windows 10 is dethroned again. In the latest Hardware & Software Survey results, Valve reports that nearly 52% of all Windows users on the platform run Windows 11.
Windows 11 became the most popular operating system on Steam for the first time in September 2024. Next month, it lost a chunk of users, and it is now back to number one. Valve says Windows 11 currently holds 51.97%, with a monthly increase of 4.28 points. This is a new all-time high for Windows 11, which is also growing fast among regular consumers (according to Statcounter).
While there are still plenty of Windows 10 users on Steam, the aging OS lost 2.71 points in October 2024 and reached 45.95%. Finally, 64-bit Windows 7, the last Windows version to appear in Valve"s reports, has 0.23% (-0.08 points) despite the lack of support from Valve and the constant fear that the platform will stop working on Windows 7 at any moment.
Overall, Windows holds 96.61% on Steam (-0.23 points). Linux is second with 2.0%, and macOS is third (1.39%), with the latest release, macOS Sequoia, being the most popular version.
As for hardware choices, the most popular part picks look like this: 16GB of RAM (46.75%), an Intel processor (65.62%) with six physical cores (32.52%), the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card (7.24%), and 8GB of video memory (35.11%). Also, 1080p remains the dominant resolution, with over 57% of Steam users playing on Full HD monitors.
You can learn more about Valve"s latest Hardware & Software Survey results on the official page. Keep in mind that participation in the survey is optional and random, which means it is not 100% accurate. The goal of the survey is to create a platform-average picture to help developers decide what technologies to support and better optimize their products.