Valve Dropping Steam Support on Old macOS Versions

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El Capitan and Sierra users will need to update to keep gaming

Steam Hardware Survey April 2022
(Image credit: Valve)

It's almost the end of the road for Steam on some Macs. After announcing plans to stop supporting Steam for Windows 7 and 8, Valve today announced it will drop support for Macs running macOS 10.11 El Capitan and 10.12 Sierra. The company made the announcement in a short blog post on its support site.

While the older versions of Windows will get dropped in Jan. 2024, the older macOS versions will get the boot earlier in Sept. 2023. Starting Sept. 1, 2023, the Steam Client will no longer run, and you'll have to update to macOS 10.13 High Sierra in order to play any games that run through Steam on your Mac.

Valve is dropping support for macOS El Capitan and Sierra for the same reasons it's dropping support for Windows 7 and 8: because "core features" of Steam use an embedded version of Chrome, which won't work on these older operating systems. 

"In addition, future versions of Steam will require macOS feature and security updates only present in macOS 10.13 and above," the unsigned blog post reads. 

This change will probably affect far fewer users than the Windows announcement, as Macs aren't nearly as popular for PC gaming. In the March 2023 Steam Hardware Survey, macOS and OS X consisted of just 1.41% of systems running Steam — and of the majority of those Macs were already running macOS 13.2.1 Ventura, which is the latest version. In fact, the oldest version even captured in the survey was macOS 10.15.7, an update to Catalina, and consisted of less than 1% (of the 1.41% of macOS/OS X users). So, yeah — these changes are likely to affect very few people.

Of the Macs in that survey, 54.88% were running systems with Apple Silicon, while the other 45.08% were still on Intel. El Capitan was released in 2015, with Sierra following in 2016. Security updates for those OS versions ended in 2018 and 2019, respectively. 

With free updates each year, there's little reason for Mac owners to not upgrade, as long as their system is still supported. Apple stopped supporting 32-bit applications in 2017, with macOS 10.13 High Sierra, which led to tons of Steam games becoming incompatible with macOS. 

That said, there's probably some people who will be affected by this announcement. But it looks like Valve is ready to modernize, even on this relatively minor platform.

Andrew E. Freedman
Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • PlaneInTheSky
    This is why I prefer DRM-free GoG. You actually own those games and you don't need a launcher to play them.

    The excuse that it only affects % of people when Steam drops support for operating systems is ridiculous. The whole problem with Steam is that you don't own the game and Steam can pull support from under you like a rug.

    Windows 8 was still being sold on PC not too long ago, Windows 7 is still being used on 13% of all PC according to an ArsTechnica article from 2022. Yet Steam already pulled support. Meanwhile I can still play on 30-year-old consoles without a problem.

    And Valve has an ulterior motive for dropping support on older OS. Valve wants you to buy those new $70 games, they don't want you to buy $1 games of the past. Steam has a major incentive to push people to upgrade their PC so they can sell them the latest most expensive games. I don't like being pushed to spend, dropping support for Windows 8.1 that early is an extremely aggressive tactic from Valve, it bodes badly for the future.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    Based on the article it seems like they don't have much choice if Chrome won't work on these older OS versions going forward.

    Support for Windows 7 already ended, that Steam will still work through next year is pretty impressive. Windows 8 didn't reach very many computers before 8.1 took over, and most people should have updated to 8.1 when 8 support was ended all the way back in 2016. Windows 7 in 2020, and Windows 8.1 in Jan. 2023. Windows 10 is already 8 years old...

    Also, if you are a Steam user, they aren't taking anything away, just have to buy a slightly more up to date computer. Which people regularly do.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    I do wonder if someone will sue over this stuff.

    Steam should have a way to dl games w/o using its chrome features.

    Some ppl dont care about the overlay/social features/etc.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    A command line client, yes, this must become a thing.
    Reply
  • anonymousdude
    Eximo said:
    Based on the article it seems like they don't have much choice if Chrome won't work on these older OS versions going forward.

    Support for Windows 7 already ended, that Steam will still work through next year is pretty impressive. Windows 8 didn't reach very many computers before 8.1 took over, and most people should have updated to 8.1 when 8 support was ended all the way back in 2016. Windows 7 in 2020, and Windows 8.1 in Jan. 2023. Windows 10 is already 8 years old...

    Also, if you are a Steam user, they aren't taking anything away, just have to buy a slightly more up to date computer. Which people regularly do.

    That's my understanding too. Unless Valve wants to rework the Steam so it doesn't use Chrome. Also you don't even have to buy a more up to date computer. Windows 10 activates with basically any windows key so if worse comes to worse you can just upgrade. Even if you don't activate it still works. You just have the watermark about windows not being genuine and you lose out on some personalization options.
    Reply
  • Sippincider
    macOS and OS X consisted of just 1.41% of systems running Steam
    Ouch. With a user-share slice that thin, I'm surprised Steam sees a need to support Mac at all.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    Sippincider said:
    macOS and OS X consisted of just 1.41% of systems running Steam
    Ouch. With a user-share slice that thin, I'm surprised Steam sees a need to support Mac at all.

    That number is nominally larger than the percentage that is often times seen for Linux users. However, supporting MacOS is probably a requirement seeing as how many people are switching to Macs these days.

    https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide/#monthly-200901-202303
    Windows has been in a steady but surely decline since pre-2010 and now is less than 70%. Valve does have its own Linux OS, but Apple is the clear winner here.
    Reply
  • kal326
    Eximo said:
    A command line client, yes, this must become a thing.
    Not sure if missing the /s but this is already a thing. At least on Linux for sure. Use it all the one for game server installs that install and update off Steam.
    Reply
  • Eximo
    kal326 said:
    Not sure if missing the /s but this is already a thing. At least on Linux for sure. Use it all the one for game server installs that install and update off Steam.

    Not being sarcastic, but it doesn't seem like all games are supported. That is intended for hosting a game server on something like a headless computer or a server accessible only via terminal.
    Reply