14 DAY TRIAL // Statistics provided by Valve's Steam gaming platform reveal that Windows 8.1 is becoming a much more appealing product for gamers worldwide, even though Windows 7 continues to be the leading choice for everyone.
April 2014 data shows that Windows 8.1 64-bit has grown by 1 percent, now holding a market share of 13.90 percent, enough to become the second most-used operating system on Steam.
Nonetheless, Windows 7 remains the leading operating system for those who want to play games on Steam, holding a share of 50.02 percent right now. The 32-bit version of Windows 7 is installed on 12.37 percent of computers also running Steam, while the 64-bit version of Windows 8 has a share of 8.86 percent.
Unsurprisingly, the 32-bit version of Windows XP is still among the top OS versions on Steam, as 5.39 percent of the users are still running it right now. Truth is, 3.46 percent of the Steam gamers are also running Windows Vista, so it's pretty clear that modern operating systems such as Windows 7 and Windows 8 are still leading the charts.
The 32-bit version of Windows 8.1, on the other hand, is trailing behind with a share of 0.41 percent, followed by the 64-bit flavor of Windows XP with 0.29 percent.
Windows 8.1 64-bit posted the biggest increase of all operating systems on Steam, growing by 1 percent, while Windows 7 32-bit came second as far as market share improvements are concerned with 0.27 percentage points. Windows 8.1 32-bit is also one of the names whose adoption went well last month, increasing its share by 0.03 percent.
On the other hand, Windows 7 64-bit lost 0.25 percent of its users, while Windows 8 64-bit dropped 0.28 percent.
Overall, Windows continues to be the leading choice for Steam users, even though it's being said that Linux is also becoming a powerful alternative for those who are planning to play games on their desktop computers.
According to Valve data, Windows is powering 95.25 percent of the computers running Steam, obviously remaining the top platform for gamers across the world. Linux, on the other hand, is only holding a 1.26 percent Steam share, up 0.06 percentage points as compared to the previous month. Mac OS X computers lost 0.18 percent of their users last month, dropping to a Steam share of 3.36 percent, but still remaining the second choice for gamers relying on Valve's very own platform.