New data shared by Valve reveals surprising numbers

Nov 2, 2022 16:23 GMT  ·  By

While Microsoft is betting all-in on Windows 11, the adoption of the operating system isn’t necessarily going as strong as the software giant expected.

As a result, Windows 10 continues to be the number one Windows version out there, and new statistics provided by Valve for its Steam gaming platform come to confirm this.

More specifically, Windows 10 managed to increase its Steam share in October by no less than 0.42 percent, therefore going as high as 68.91 percent. Windows 11, which is currently the runner-up, actually lost 1.47 percent last month, dropping to 23.37 percent.

Windows 11’s decline is surprising, to say the least, especially given the numbers point to a major drop in Steam share. In theory, the migration should take place the other way around, especially as the availability of Windows 11 2022 Update is improving.

However, Valve’s data seems to suggest that some users who installed Windows 11 eventually downgraded to Windows 10, possibly because of the gaming performance they encountered on the new operating system.

But the decline recorded by Windows 11 isn’t the only surprise that took place in October.

Valve claims the Steam share of Windows 7 has also increased significantly, as it went up no more, no less than 1.19 percent. At this point, 3.59 percent of the users running Steam on their devices are also running Windows 7.

Apple’s macOS went down 0.13 percent last month to settle for 2.23 percent of the Steam userbase, while Linux improved by 0.05 percent to 1.28 percent.

Overall, Windows is by far the preferred gaming platform for Steam users, as it’s currently powering 96.50 percent of the devices where Apple’s application is installed. And of course, Windows 10 is very likely to remain the preferred OS for a lot longer.