14 DAY TRIAL // While Windows 7 is currently the number one operating system overall, not the same thing can be said when it comes to gaming specifically.
Windows 10 isn’t only leading the charts here, but it’s actually increasing its market share every month, with Steam data shows that it’s now running on more than 6 in 10 PCs where Valve’s gaming platform is installed.
According to November 2018 figures, Windows 10 64-bit recorded a bump of 2.26% in Steam adoption, so it’s now running on 63.50% of gaming PCs. Windows 7 64-bit remains the runner-up, but it’s down 3.09% to 26.52%. Third in the charts is the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1, but very far behind the two with just 3.60% and a 0.29% increase last month.
Overall, Windows dropped 0.44% during the month of November, so it’s now powering 96% of the PCs users by gamers to play titles available on Steam.
The non-Windows gaming world
Apple’s macOS is second in the chart with 3.20%, up 0.36% from the previous month. While this may signal that more gamers are making the switch from Windows to macOS, this isn’t the case, as Microsoft’s operating system continues to be the preferred choice for gamers worldwide.
Linux is also growing, but November 2018 brought an increase of just 0.08%, so the open-source Windows rival is now powering a total of 0.80% of Steam systems. This is mostly thanks to a 0.06% share of Linux Mint 19 Tara 64-bit, as shown by the Valve data.
Windows 10 is likely to continue the growing trend in the coming months, as Microsoft has recently re-released the October 2018 Update and it is now making it available gradually for devices across the world.
The update was originally published in early October, but was pulled a few days later due to a critical bug. It was shipped once again in November for a limited set of devices.