The Steam hardware survey for June 2024 has revealed that Windows 11 is soon to overtake Windows 10 as the most popular operating system on the gaming platform.
According to Valve’s most recent figures, Windows 11 now accounts for a total of 46.63% of users on the platform (of which, in total, there were over 37 million people last month). That’s an increase of 0.55% on the previous month.
Windows 10 still edges out the newer OS for now, remaining in the lead with 49.42%, although it’s only a few percent ahead now – and saw a decrease of 0.93% in June.
Given this kind of trajectory with Windows 11 on the up, and Windows 10 declining, it’ll likely only take a couple of months for the former to claim pole position, finally.
As for other Windows versions, they amount to less than 1% (Windows 7 and 8), and are pretty much irrelevant at this point.
In fact, there are now more users on macOS 14.5 at 1.31% than these two older versions of Windows, and Linux is further ahead at 2.08% (likely thanks to its usage in the Steam Deck as SteamOS). Of course, Microsoft‘s desktop operating system will continue to be dominant for many years to come, no doubt.
Despite Windows 11’s success here, it hasn’t been without problems. Far from it, and indeed in recent times, the OS has travelled along a very rocky road. That includes the appearance of more advertising than ever in everything from the Weather app to the Start menu of all things. There have also been instability issues for some users, with Microsoft pausing the rollout of new features, and the taskbar breaking, as well as some unlucky Windows 11 users finding themselves stuck in reboot loop hell.
Windows 11 is destined to take the OS crown
The numbers don’t lie. Despite its issues, Windows 11 is on track to soon become the biggest operating system for PC gamers. In a way, it kind of wins by default as it’s naturally going to be supported for longer, and will continue to receive essential security updates and improvements as Microsoft sends Windows 10 off to pasture.
Still, all the recent problems won’t help persuade Windows 10 users to migrate, and indeed outside of the gaming world, adoption of Windows 11 has proved far more sluggish. Worryingly so for Microsoft, given that Windows 11 is a free upgrade too (though some folks can’t upgrade due to the hardware requirements of the new OS, of course).
Windows 10 will no longer be supported come October 2025, so one way or another, in not much more than a year, people are going to be forced to upgrade to Windows 11, or look at an alternative such as Linux (or pay for extended Windows 10 support, which is a third option).
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alekshamcloughlin@outlook.com (Aleksha McLoughlin)
