It’s taken almost three years, however PC players at the moment are lastly able to crown a brand new champion. In line with the newest Steam {Hardware} Survey for August 2024, Home windows 11 is now the default alternative for players, knocking Home windows 10 from the highest spot for the primary time since 2016.
Home windows stays the dominant platform on the entire with a 96.78% total share of customers operating Home windows 11, 10, 8, and seven. Assist for different platforms, together with macOS and Linux, stays fairly regular, however nonetheless with underneath 3.22% of the entire market share. That features customers operating the default Linux-based SteamOS on the Steam Deck. SteamOS is perhaps nice on a Steam Deck, however one of the best gaming PCs are nonetheless operating Home windows (for now, at the least).
As Home windows 11 approaches its third birthday, although, there’s a transparent signal that Microsoft’s efforts emigrate customers to its latest OS are lastly working. The August Steam Survey exhibits a 3.36% enhance in Home windows 11 customers, taking it as much as 49.17% of the entire. This matches an almost equal loss in Home windows 10 help by 3.07%, taking the entire share of customers on that platform all the way down to 47.09%.
Steam help ended for Home windows 7 and eight customers again in January 2024, and whereas a dedicated 0.44% of customers are nonetheless clinging to these platforms, that’s now a tiny proportion of the entire. With simply over a 12 months to go till Home windows 10 help ends, and with every new gaming PC offered, I’m anticipating to see the help for Home windows 10 drop steadily over the following twelve months. This two-horse race is hotting up, however with a brand new race chief now in entrance.
Celebration for Microsoft, then, but it surely’s a very long time within the making. Home windows 11’s launch wasn’t a roaring success for players, with efficiency points and new {hardware} necessities, comparable to TPM 2.0 chip help, placing customers off if they’d older {hardware}. Even free upgrades to Home windows 11 haven’t been sufficient to push some players to maneuver on, at the least till now.
Microsoft isn’t afraid to gatekeep its greatest and newest options on Home windows 11 to drive the problem, both. DirectStorage, a know-how from Microsoft that cab quickly velocity up recreation loading occasions and enhance gaming efficiency on PCs with one of the best gaming SSDs, works on Home windows 10, however receives one of the best enhancements on Home windows 11.
When you’re planning to construct a gaming PC immediately, you’re now greatest suggested to put in Home windows 11, as Microsoft is just going to help Home windows 10 with safety updates till October 2025.
