Valve updated its Hardware & Software Survey today for March 2019 today, revealing that more than two in every three gamers on its Steam PC gaming community and store are now using Windows 10. The latest and greatest from Microsoft isn’t even at 40% market share, but gamers are early adopters: On Steam the figure is now at 67.15%.
In its first month, Windows 10 adoption on Steam passed Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. After two months, Windows 8.1 was also conquered, and 10 months in, Windows 7 was dethroned. While it took six months for one-third of Steam users to adopt Windows 10, it took another 37 months for the second third to follow suit.
Here is Steam’s operating system market share list for March 2019:
- Windows 10: 67.15%
- Windows 8.1: 3.31%
- Windows 8: 0.28%
- Windows 7: 25.1%
- Mac OS X: 3.27%
- Linux: 0.82%
Other Windows versions are also losing adoption on Steam, meaning Windows 10 is gaining more than Windows 7 is losing. Steam dropped support for Windows XP and Windows Vista earlier this year, which likely added to Windows 10’s recent gains.
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Breaking down the numbers even more, here is how each operating system version fared:
Between February and March, Windows 10 jumped 3.11 percentage points — a big increase compared to previous months. These gains have to come from somewhere: Windows 8.1 slipped 0.18 points, Windows 8 dipped 0.03 points, and Windows 7 fell 2.82 points. On the whole, Windows still dominates Steam with over 95% share. Mac and Linux were both flat in March. While the three operating system families tend to fluctuate from month to month, Windows stays above the 95% mark on Steam.
Windows 10 growth
Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million devices after 10 weeks. Growth was fairly steady afterward: 200 million in under six months, 270 million after eight months, 300 million after nine months, 350 million after 11 months, and 400 million after 14 months. It naturally tapered, though: 500 million after 21 months, 600 million after 28 months, and 700 million after 38 months.
Last month, Windows 10 passed 800 million devices. Gamers certainly helped it hit this latest milestone.
