Tuesday, December 3rd 2024

Windows 11 Grows in November Steam Survey Results As Linux Coasts at 2% and English Overtakes Chinese

Steam's monthly hardware and software surveys provide a decent picture of what hardware and software gamers rely on to play their favorite games—at least those on Valve's game platform. Since the launch of Windows 11, it has been a somewhat reliable way to track the adoption of the new Windows version, and, as the official cut-off for Windows 10 support draws near, one would expect Windows 11 to pick up steam, especially among gamers, where Windows is the dominant OS. The results of the November Steam Survey are in, and while not much has changed on the hardware front, it seems like Microsoft is indeed wearing gamers down when it comes to Windows 11 adoption. Despite seeing a decent uptick in Windows 11 installations, the overall Windows market share dropped, even if almost imperceptibly, while Linux and macOS both saw a slight uptick in adoption among Steam gamers. As expected, Windows remained the dominant platform for gamers, but Windows 11, specifically, saw growth of 4.18%, while Windows 10 lost 4.15%, which is almost an exact 1:1 match, indicating that gamers are largely staying on Windows when they finally decide to move on from Windows 10. Overall, Windows lost 0.05% market share, compared to Linux, which gained 0.03% and macOS, which grew by 0.02%.

Valve's SteamOS Holo was the most popular Linux version in the survey, but it, too, slid by 0.28%. Of course, the hardware split for Linux is representative of the software side of things, which is to say: It's mostly just Steam Decks. As expected, most of the video cards and CPUs in the Linux results were AMD GPUs, with well over 36% of the sampled Linux gamers using AMD GPUs, even disregarding the obvious bias introduced by the AMD-powered Steam Deck hardware. The most popular NVIDIA GPU on Linux systems running Steam is currently the GeForce RTX 3060, at a mere 1.46% of the market share. Meanwhile, on Windows side, 5.03% of gamers are using the GTX 3060, with the next most popular GPU being the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU, at 4.92%.
It also looks like the recent influx of Chinese Steam gamers, likely driven by games like Black Myth: Wukong, might have died down somewhat—at least if preferred language is any indication. According to the survey, Simplified Chinese saw a sizeable decline of 3.31%, putting English as the top language once more. According to SteamDB, Black Myth: Wukong's player base saw a massive 54.9% decline in the month of November, and we previously saw a correlation between Chinese Steam gamers and Black Myth: Wukong when the game launched, so it would not be inconceivable for there to be another drop in Chinese Steam gamers coinciding with a decline in players of the game.
Sources: Steam, SteamDB
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7 Comments on Windows 11 Grows in November Steam Survey Results As Linux Coasts at 2% and English Overtakes Chinese

#1
TheDeeGee
I'll see about it some time next year, as it stands it's far to frequently in the news negatively with bugs.

I did install it a week or two ago on my Intel NUC, and instantly needed StartAllBack to make the UI functional.
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#2
Raiden85
TheDeeGeeI'll see about it some time next year, as it stands it's far to frequently in the news negatively with bugs.

I did install it a week or two ago on my Intel NUC, and instantly needed StartAllBack to make the UI functional.
Been running 11 since the day it launched, and overall it's been a rock-solid OS. My PC runs 24/7, and over multiple high end gaming builds, I haven't seen a BSOD yet. Won't deny 11 has had some stupid bugs that should never have made it to release, considering some were incredibly obvious, but nothing that has affected the stability of the OS.

Startallback or the older version has been a requirement for me since Windows 8 when they destroyed that UI, and have used it on 10 and now 11. I like it as I get to use the older classic start menu as well as the newer one as I use them equally, and on 11 it makes the taskbar more useful and removes that ridiculous new right-click context menu.
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#3
Daven
As a Steam hardware survey watcher for over ten years, I’ve seen the Chinese language temporary burst many times. Typically an increase in older Windows versions and Intel CPUs accompany this burst.

I attribute this to occasional bot and/or farming campaigns out of China that Valve then cracks down on. I don’t think it has to do with the release of an asian themed game each time.
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#4
phints
Win11 is the best we got for gaming (and maybe productivity too) so no surprise there. Seeing RTX 3060 as the most popular surprised me but given Nvidia's pricing makes sense.
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#5
ZoneDymo
To this day I haven't found a single reason to switch to W11
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#6
L'Eliminateur
ZoneDymoTo this day I haven't found a single reason to switch to W11
there's none, Win10 performs far better in all games.

what you want for gaming is a lean OS with no security safeguards and all that crap getting in the way of the game process. (Linux is far better than MS on that, but the support is still shite, i want the exact same functionality i have on windows)
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#7
matar
I am sticking with Windows 10. and as for 11 i tired it for one day then immediately went back to 10 and 11 is gaining % because Microsoft is pushing 11 as they are stopping support for 10 even if they stop won't make me upgrade until i see window 12 if they offer windows 10 features.
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Dec 11th, 2024 20:29 EST change timezone

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