14 DAY TRIAL // New data provided by Valve for its Steam gaming platform reveals that Windows 10 has returned to growth in January, while Windows 7 is losing share at a fast pace.
Windows 7 64-bit declined 12.11% during the month, while the 64-bit version of Windows 10 improved no less than 10.63%. This means Windows 7 is still leading the chart with 56.69%, but Windows 10 is getting closer with 35.40%.
Their 32-bit siblings hold only a small share, with Windows 7 improving to 1.50%, while Windows 10 added another 0.01% to achieve 0.29%.
Windows 10 returning to growth
Previously, Windows 10 managed to overtake Windows 7 in the Steam charts, but the 2009 operating system returned to growth in the last months of 2017, mostly thanks to what was believed to be an increased share in China generated by the skyrocketing popularity of new games like PUBG.
Things are now returning to normal, judging from the new share data offered by Valve, and Windows 10 should overtake Windows 7 once again either in February or in the next couple of months.
Overall, Windows declined 0.48% during the month of January to a Steam share of 97.76%, while Apple’s macOS improved 0.42% to 1.84%. Linux also scored an increase of 0.15% to 0.41%.
Microsoft has recently completed the rollout of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and with the next update codenamed Redstone 4 in queue, it shouldn’t be too hard to overtake Windows 7 on Steam.
Windows 10 comes with a series of new technologies for gamers, including DirectX and Game Mode, a special operating system feature whose purpose is to boost performance during gaming by allocating more resources to the main process of the game.
Redstone 4 is projected to be finalized in March before being shipped to everyone one month later. The update is currently in the development stage as part of the Windows Insider Program.