Windows 11 is finally the most popular operating system in the world... for PC gamers

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for August 2024 show that Windows 10 has been dethroned as the most popular operating system among PC gamers. Yes, this means Windows 11 is proving to be very popular with PC gamers, with the operating system sitting on a majority 50% market share (49.17% to be exact), an increase of 3.36% from July 2024.

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Windows 11 is at the top of the most-used operating system chart in the latest Steam survey.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results show that Windows 10's market share has dropped by 3.07%, almost the same amount that Windows 11's share has grown. This suggests that more PC gamers are jumping to Windows 11 directly from Windows 10.

Although Windows 11 has struggled to overtake Windows 10 as the world's most popular operating system among all PC users, it looks like PC gamers have been transitioning steadily. This probably comes down to the fact that modern PC games and platforms like Steam, Xbox, EA, and Ubisoft are optimized for Windows 11 alongside tech like DirectX.

Steam's data shows that Windows 11's popularity and share have grown steadily in recent months (and years). However, it did take a little while to get to this point. For some PC gamers, jumping to Windows 11 is more of an obligation to 'stay current' and stay updated to play the latest games than something done to have the newest version of Windows installed for its features.

Windows accounts for 96.78% of the Steam player base, with Linux a distant second at 1.96%, followed by MacOS with 1.30%. Windows 11 and Windows 10 make up the majority of all Steam players, with only a tiny percentage of gamers using older versions of the operating system, like Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

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