The latest Steam Hardware Survey shows Windows with a commanding 93.47% share of users on the platform, but below that muscular statistic lies a far more embarrassing one: Only 67.74% of Steam users are on Windows 11, almost five years after its initial release.
Perhaps even more surprising, six months after Windows 10's official end of life, more than a quarter of Steam users (25.53%) are still on the moribund OS, which had its own official release almost 11 years ago. I find it difficult to see this as anything but a massive blunder for the default PC operating system, though the hardware market is also contributing to Microsoft's adoption problem.
With the notable exception of a whole lot of Copilot AI nonsense, Windows 11 has stabilized into functionally the same user experience as Windows 10 after a rocky beginning. That's not bad, but it's hardly a compelling reason to upgrade.
Windows 11's early tarnished reputation made for a heady mix with its real poison pill: Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0, a hardware-level security measure required by Windows 11 and not present in earlier processor generations.
A hardware upgrade solely to access a stagnant version of Windows is a tough ask under any conditions. It's especially onerous now: Hardware prices are skyrocketing and top of the line rigs struggle to run poorly optimized PC ports. But paradoxically, withered processors and graphics cards are able to be stretched for 10 years or more, depending on the graphical compromises you're willing to make.
I don't think the next phase of the Linux gaming renaissance is in danger of commencing any time soon, either: After cracking 5% of Steam users in March's survey, the April Steam Hardware Survey showed them dropping back to a still-impressive 4.52%—so not a catastrophe, but the numbers just aren't going to the moon (yet).
Windows is still in a tight spot, with even governments like France committing to alternatives. I see parallels to the divisive Windows Vista and 8 being followed by the unifying forces of Windows 7 and 10 respectively. Microsoft could turn things around with a crowd-pleasing Windows 12, but in the era of Copilot and Recall, I'm not convinced it still has that three-seam fastball.
