Microsoft says Windows 11 has overtaken its predecessor, Windows 10, to become the most used operating system among gamers on Steam . This marks a significant milestone for the operating system since its launch in October 2021. According to Steam's August Device Survey statistics, Windows 11 usage by gamers has reached 50.8 percent, an increase of more than 3.4 percent from July.
On the other hand, Windows 10 dropped to 48.7 percent, down about 3.3 percent from the previous month, Forbes reported.
This development comes embarrassingly late for Microsoft as it has already been 3 years since the launch of Windows 11, and on top of that, gamers remain more up-to-date with software than the general computing community.
Despite Microsoft's plans to end support for the older version in October 2025, Windows 10 has maintained a strong presence among PC gamers so far, while during this period macOS and Linux usage rates on Steam have remained unchanged.
According to worldwide Windows market share figures from Statcounter, Windows 10 was still in use on nearly two-thirds (64.2%) of Windows PCs in July, and Windows 11 captured a market share of around 32% in August this year.
According to reports, leaked data from October last year showed that over 400 million devices were running Windows 11 at the time, however, this represents a slower adoption rate for the new operating system compared to Windows 10, which reached the same number of active devices within a year of its launch.
It's worth noting that the slower acceptance of Windows 11 is partly due to stricter upgrade eligibility criteria, including mandatory hardware requirements such as CPUs and the TPM security chip released from 2018 onwards.
Many Windows 10 users were unable to make the switch despite it being offered as a free upgrade due to Microsoft's hardware requirements for Windows 11.
In comparison, millions of users were able to upgrade to Windows 10 without needing new hardware when moving from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10, and this was made possible because there were no strict hardware restrictions at the time.