Gamers Start Embracing Windows 11, According to Steam Data
Windows 11 breaks the 20% Milestone in the latest Steam Hardware Survey.
The new Steam Hardware Survey data is out, covering the month of June 2022. This month, probably the most notable change is that Windows 11 has made its first foray above 20% market share – up 1.64% to 21.23% in June. Windows 10 still looks unassailable at 71.26%. However, the drop of 2.63% is quite a significant one.
Windows 11 launched in October last year, so it has only been available to mainstream users for nine months. As with any new Windows OS, there were some unwelcome issues with the fledgling release. Finally, things are looking up for Windows 11, with recent updates and patches smoothing out rough edges and adding finesse. Moreover, Windows 11's first big update is on the horizon with many optimizations and features. Windows 11 22H2 is due this Fall (but you can grab it now if you don't mind using the Insider version).
Before its release, Microsoft talked up Windows 11 as a significant advance for gaming. We tested the claims last December with a powerful and relatively modern system. We found that in terms of gaming performance, there was no difference on offer compared to Windows 10. However, at that time, our lab's test machine didn't leverage Intel's 12th Generation Alder Lake chips, with its mix of Performance- and Efficiency-cores (depending on the SKU).
According to the latest survey, steam users have been warming up to Windows 11. Whether most of these are willing upgrades by Win 10 (or older) users or new machines with Windows 11 pre-installed, we don't know. Elsewhere in the OS charts, OSX is continuing to make small gains (making up 2.35% of Steam users in June), as is Linux (1.18%), but nothing seismic is happening in these minor areas of the Steam user base.
The monthly Steam Hardware Survey's hardware side doesn't have much high-octane action this month. Looking at graphics cards first, the old GeForce GTX 1060 is holding steadily to its top place, with the only likely challenger in the coming months probably the GeForce GTX 1650. On a more upbeat note, the top three gainers in graphics cards this month were a trio of Ampere GPUs.
In processors, AMD had been chipping away at Intel's lead in the CPU stakes for several months, but Intel pulled some share back last month quite a bit. In a two-horse race, Intel retains over two-thirds of the market share, and it will take something extraordinary from AMD to break out and move from being the favorite choice of about a third of Steam users to anything like half. What impacts will Raptor Lake and Ryzen 7000 have? Stay tuned.
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Alvar "Miles" Udell Be interesting to know how many of those systems were running WindowBlinds or another shell to eradicate the horrid Mac-like UI...Reply -
rdmetz
Does it really matter?Alvar Miles Udell said:Be interesting to know how many of those systems were running WindowBlinds or another shell to eradicate the horrid Mac-like UI...
For those that care they can easily fix and for those that don't well... They might actually like it.
I started using openshell basically as soon windows 8/10 went away from the standard of 7 and while I've upgraded to every version since basically day 1 without issue.
Meanwhile I've tried to "help" many of my friends and family by doing the same and most have either said no or if I did it they just went back to the original style after a while.
The fact is majority of users don't really care and easily adapt to and eventually prefer the new standard.
Let them keep evolving those of us who don't like it have options and who knows maybe one day they come up with an option that's even better.
I don't think they have personally... Yet... But that's why I still have the option to make things like they were in 7.
I wouldn't want them to NEVER evolve otherwise we never would have gotten the 7 style to begin with. -
bmtphoenix The change can easily be just people buying new PCs and laptops. People who buy those literally cannot choose and have to go with 11, and most aren't savvy enough to go back to 10 even if they wanted to, which they probably don't because 11 is the new and shiny.Reply -
USAFRet
And also, contrary to all the woofin and tweetin about "OMG How horrible Win 11 is!!"....there really isn't THAT much difference.bmtphoenix said:and most aren't savvy enough to go back to 10 even if they wanted to, which they probably don't because 11 is the new and shiny.
It took me a whole day to get used to 11 vs 10. -
-Fran- I'm willing to say this is more of a consequence of Alder Lake selling in no small amounts and new laptops with it than people willingly moving into it.Reply
Regards. -
USAFRet
Exactly how it has come to be for every Windows version update, in the history of ever.-Fran- said:I'm willing to say this is more of a consequence of Alder Lake selling in no small amounts and new laptops with it than people willingly moving into it.
Regards. -
Ogotai im STILL waiting to even SEE a steam survey prompt, its only been, maybe 8 years that i have used steam.Reply
one of the reasons why steam, should be used as a reference, not as a standard, to gauge usage details, and how many X video cards are being used, and how many people are using win 10 or 11, etc. out of all those that use steam, how many of them actually get the steam survey prompt ? -
ThatMouse Oh ya I'm "embracing" Windows 11 like I'm embracing an STD. Thank you ExplorerPatcher for giving me back a usable interface. Also, <Mod Edit> Windows 11.Reply
https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher -
jkflipflop98 Win11 is awesome.Reply
There are people out there that vehemently refuse to use anything other than WinXP. To them, it's the pinnacle of operating systems.