First announced last month via its Beta update, Valve has re-confirmed that Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 support for Steam Client will be dropping next year on Jan 1st, 2024 at 10am. This annoucement was made with the latest final Client update today as the "End of Life" alert will now be pushed to everyone.
According to Valve"s own survey data, 1.86% of Steam"s user base is on the three operating systems getting the boot. The vast majority of Windows users, which amount to 96.37% of total active accounts on the platform, are using Windows 10 (62.33%) and Windows 11 (32.06%).
Alongside that, the update also brings other fixes and improvements like reduced CPU usage during Big Picture Mode window, crash fix in Compatibility mode, among others. Over on macOS side, End of Life alert for macOS 10.11 ("El Capitan") and 10.12 ("Sierra") are being pushed.
General
macOS
- Added "End of Life" alert for Windows 7/8/8.1. Steam Client support for these operating systems will end on Jan 1st, 2024 at 10am. See here for additional details.
- Fixed crash when clicking links in Compatibility Mode alert dialogs
- Reduced CPU usage of the Big Picture Mode window
- Added "End of Life" alert for macOS 10.11 ("El Capitan") and 10.12 ("Sierra"). Steam Client support for these operating systems will end on September 1st, 2023 at 10am. See here for additional details.
- Fix Steam Overlay crash in some games using Metal graphics API
You can find Valve"s official support article here.