Steam Survey July 2024 Update: Windows 10 Usage Records Uptick, Windows 11 Drops

[AleksandarK]

Interesting things are happening in the gaming community, as Windows 10 operating system has seen an increase in its user base on the Steam platform, while Windows 11 has dipped below the 46% mark for the first time since its launch. According to the latest July data from Steam's hardware and software survey, Windows 10's share rose to 47.69%, marking a significant uptick that contrasts with Windows 11's decline to 45.73%. This trend highlights a growing preference among gamers for the older operating system, which is often praised for its stability and compatibility with a wide range of games and hardware. Many users have expressed concerns over Windows 11's performance and its stringent hardware requirements, which have made it less accessible for some gamers, especially those without the TPM 2.0-enhanced system.

The shift in user demographics is particularly interesting given that Windows 11 was designed with gaming enhancements in mind, including features like DirectStorage and Auto HDR. However, the adoption rate appears to be hampered by issues related to compatibility and performance, leading many gamers to stick with the more familiar and reliable Windows 10. This trend could prompt Microsoft to reevaluate its approach to Windows 11, particularly in terms of addressing user concerns and enhancing compatibility with existing hardware. Other OSes are seeing stagnation, especially with Linux-based distributions recording zero change. Apple's OSX stands at 1.37%, a +0.06% increase from last month.



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[Chaitanya]

Not surprising people are avoiding Win 11.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

Screw this Steam survey. It's not accurate at all.
I've been tracing those records for three years and found that those models (among GPUs) which take less than 0.15% don't show up at all, and there are almost seasonal huge changes in manufacturer percentages (this month one grows and next month it falls back to normal). I don't think that's explainable or believable. What? All their users unplug or plug together at the same time monthly?

 

[Dr_b_]

"This trend could prompt Microsoft to reevaluate its approach to Windows 11, particularly in terms of addressing user concerns and enhancing compatibility with existing hardware."

Yeah, their reaction will be to have their offshore coders put in more Ads and Telemetry to "Fix" it, then not test any of those new "features" before releasing it in a major new "update"

 

[ARF]

Screw this Steam survey. It's not accurate at all.

For displays resolutions, it is not accurate. But for Windows usage, you can take it as more legit.

According to market share figures from Statcounter, the gap between Windows 11 and Windows 10 usage is slightly growing, and not in a way we imagine Microsoft wants.

Windows 11's global desktop market share dipped between February 2024 and April 2024 from 28.16 percent to 25.65 percent, while Windows 10's share grew to 70.03 percent from 67.26 percent. Things were slightly closer a few months ago, but the gap has since widened. (We assume these Statcounter figures are legit; the outfit acknowledged on Friday there was a blip in its Google numbers.)

Has Windows 11 really lost marketshare to Windows 10?

Users continue to give Microsoft's latest and greatest a wide berth

www.theregister.com

 

[64K]

I've been thinking for a couple of years that Win 11 will be another battle for MS like it was to force people off Win 7. People are happy with Win 10. Why should they be forced to "upgrade" to Win 11 for no reason at all? MS bullheaded stubbornness yet again.

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

Screw this Steam survey. It's not accurate at all.
I've been tracing those records for three years and found that those models (among GPUs) which take less than 0.15% don't show up at all, and there are almost seasonal huge changes in manufacturer percentages (this month one grows and next month it falls back to normal). I don't think that's explainable or believable. What? All their users unplug or plug together at the same time monthly?

Let me add some snapshots.

How to explain these spikes (which take place per 5 to 6 months on average)? Some users had a discussion to jump to one side and jump to the other the next month?

Look at this. This is currently the only one with 0.15% barrier displayed. Back a year ago, RX 6600 XT, 6600 and other RDNA 2-based cards and even some others encountered this BS. How to understand this? 0.15% of users bought this model together in the same month and sold it together the next month? That is totally nonsense.

 

[AusWolf]

Personally, I'm not on Windows 11 because it's a massive spyware. The things mentioned in the article have nothing to do with it.

 

[Launcestonian]

Personally, I'm not on Windows 11 because it's a massive spyware. The things mentioned in the article have nothing to do with it.

Spyware or not, what about your government & ISPs?

 

[64K]

@Sabotaged_Enigma It's the nature of how the Survey works. Not everyone is sampled every month. It's a randomly generated sampling of users which is voluntary. Not everyone is asked to enter and not everyone asked will enter either. Naturally there will be fluctuations. There is a way to force Steam to add your specs but most don't know about it.

Google Win 10/11 adoption figures in general you will find that the majority are staying on Win 10 even after years of Win 11 being around and the upcoming end of extended support planned next year for Win 10.

 

[AusWolf]

Spyware or not, what about your government & ISPs?

Unfortunately, I can't bypass them. But I can live without Windows 11.

 

[ARF]

Not surprising people are avoiding Win 11.

Personally, I'm not on Windows 11 because it's a massive spyware. The things mentioned in the article have nothing to do with it.

It's normal when users don't want to downgrade their operating system to something much inferior, that offers nothing better than the predecessor. It's very slow, its user interface is trash, it doesn't support any new technologies which might be of use.

Let's hope M$ learns finally, and releases Windows 12 in a way it released Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows 10..

 

[Sabotaged_Enigma]

Not everyone is sampled every month. It's a randomly generated sampling of users which is voluntary. Not everyone is asked to enter and not everyone asked will enter either.

I know. Steam asks me occasionally.
But this certainly doesn't justify what I found weird. If explained your way, it's even weirder - the same group of people try not to participate at the same time?

 

[Chaitanya]

It's normal when users don't want to downgrade their operating system to something much inferior, that offers nothing better than the predecessor. It's very slow, its user interface is trash, it doesn't support any new technologies which might be of use.

Let's hope M$ learns finally, and releases Windows 12 in a way it released Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows 10..

Win 10 was also a massive downgrade over Win7, people didnt upgrade to Win 10 and were rather forced to upgrade thanks to Zen 1 and Kaby Lake CPUs culling support for Win 7. Also MS decided not to support Dx 12 in OS's prior to Win 10 forcing anyone who had DX12 ready GPU(RTX 20 series completely dropped Win 7 support) to upgrade to Win10. Compared to Win 7 Windows 10 was an experiment in shoving spyware down users throat and when people accepted that Spyware, MS went full steam with Win 11 spyware. Given how most things from MS have moved away from offline to online(Win 11 is quite flaky when not connected to Internet) fully expecting Win 12 to same old Win 11 but with more "AI" and spying.

 

[_roman_]

I do understand that someone has to write some text.

I do not agree with that statement, but whatever.

leading many gamers to stick with the more familiar and reliable Windows 10.

Not everyone games with steam with decent hardware.

My main operating system is Gnu Gentoo Linux. I decided before 2006 to keep my private stuff and life separated from the mediocre, "secure", stable, gaming platform Windows.

I do game with the EPIC Game store on Windows 11 Pro. I hardly use steam, except when claiming free games. I dislike the steam launcher. Sometimes i play GOG.com games. EA Launcher / Kalypso Launcher / Ubisoft Launcher are also on my W11Pro Box for only one game each. there is no other way to claim stuff except to have the steam launcher installed.

I used to play in gnu linux with steam - the performance was worse.

I also had some late Android Gaming years also.

 

[LittleBro]

Let me add some snapshots.

How to explain these spikes (which take place per 5 to 6 months on average)? Some users had a discussion to jump to one side and jump to the other the next month?
View attachment 357791View attachment 357792

Look at this. This is currently the only one with 0.15% barrier displayed. Back a year ago, RX 6600 XT, 6600 and other RDNA 2-based cards and even some others encountered this BS. How to understand this? 0.15% of users bought this model together in the same month and sold it together the next month? That is totally nonsense.
View attachment 357793

Users are not obligated to participate in the survey. These spikes present number of users that took survey at that time - sometimes there are more of them, sometimes less.

It'd be better for Steam (for data clarity) to ask for a permanent permission to grab users' system specs every month and not ask each time. I mean, yes, it is really nice of Steam that is always asks whether user want to participate in the survey and share system specs but then such spikes may occur and data is less relevant (unless normalized). By asking for permanent permission I don't mean that the user wouldn't be able to cancel the permission later somewhere in the settings.

Win 10 was also a massive downgrade over Win7, people didnt upgrade to Win 10 and were rather forced to upgrade thanks to Zen 1 and Kaby Lake CPUs culling support for Win 7. Also MS decided not to support Dx 12 in OS's prior to Win 10 forcing anyone who had DX12 ready GPU(RTX 20 series completely dropped Win 7 support) to upgrade to Win10. Compared to Win 7 Windows 10 was an experiment in shoving spyware down users throat and when people accepted that Spyware, MS went full steam with Win 11 spyware. Given how most things from MS have moved away from offline to online(Win 11 is quite flaky when not connected to Internet) fully expecting Win 12 to same old Win 11 but with more "AI" and spying.

From having everything stored somewhere in the cloud, there's just a short step to completely transform Windows to a service that requires permanent internet connection, that does computational work somewhere in the cloud, and let's you access computed data and various services based on your monthly fee. (Something like nVidia's GeForce now but on the OS scale.) ARM is a way to go, let's sell to people $700 laptops equipped with $100 smartphone-like SoC, so that they are able to connect to MS servers and MS will take it from there. I hope this idea will remain a conspiracy and never become reality.

 

[ARF]

Win 10 was also a massive downgrade over Win7, people didnt upgrade to Win 10 and were rather forced to upgrade thanks to Zen 1 and Kaby Lake CPUs culling support for Win 7. Also MS decided not to support Dx 12 in OS's prior to Win 10 forcing anyone who had DX12 ready GPU(RTX 20 series completely dropped Win 7 support) to upgrade to Win10. Compared to Win 7 Windows 10 was an experiment in shoving spyware down users throat and when people accepted that Spyware, MS went full steam with Win 11 spyware. Given how most things from MS have moved away from offline to online(Win 11 is quite flaky when not connected to Internet) fully expecting Win 12 to same old Win 11 but with more "AI" and spying.

I agree that Windows 10 is worse than both XP and 7 (especially with its super beautiful Aero), but at least it brought the Start button back, and was an improvement over Windows 8, which was garbage, the worst after Windows 11 operating system ever released.

there's just a short step to completely transform Windows to a service that requires permanent internet connection

It's sometimes like quite stupid people thinking about it. It's impossible and will never happen, because there are many users for many reasons working offline..

 

[TheDeeGee]

I'll eventually move to 11, but not untill it's EOL and even then i highly doubt it's risky as the average joe to stick with it another year.

 

[The Quim Reaper]

Translation...Win11 is utter crap and getting worse.

 

[ZoneDymo]

I have yet to see anything that makes me think I should upgrade.
Like MS could do a lot better in promoting it, maybe work with some youtubers to promote new updates it has and what it can offer people? idk its just weird, its just...there...for me atleast, but why would I put in the effort of upgrading and learning where everything lives now?

 

[AusWolf]

Win 10 was also a massive downgrade over Win7, people didnt upgrade to Win 10 and were rather forced to upgrade thanks to Zen 1 and Kaby Lake CPUs culling support for Win 7. Also MS decided not to support Dx 12 in OS's prior to Win 10 forcing anyone who had DX12 ready GPU(RTX 20 series completely dropped Win 7 support) to upgrade to Win10. Compared to Win 7 Windows 10 was an experiment in shoving spyware down users throat and when people accepted that Spyware, MS went full steam with Win 11 spyware. Given how most things from MS have moved away from offline to online(Win 11 is quite flaky when not connected to Internet) fully expecting Win 12 to same old Win 11 but with more "AI" and spying.

Let's be honest, if I didn't have to upgrade for modern CPU and DirectX support, I'd probably still use Windows 98 or XP.

Windows = planned obsolescence in full force.

 

[Darkholm]

Windows 11 is "okayish" when installed as Enterprise LTSC version without all of that spyware MS store, Copilot and other crap. I have it on my test rig and it is OK. Initial installation was only 14 GB fat.
But main Windows OS is still Win10 and it will be as long as it's supported (and maybe above and beyond that via also LTSC version )

 

[Shihab]

How to explain these spikes (which take place per 5 to 6 months on average)? Some users had a discussion to jump to one side and jump to the other the next month?

No. That's just how random sampling works, and why every stat is usually taken within a specific confidence interval, not as just as a discrete value.
Noise is very common in timeseries data. Which is why we typically further process them to get any meaningful info. Heck! The ton of common, smoothing algorithms used for such series are made with much, much noisier data in mind.

To me, those graphs look pretty clean. Don't need to squint too hard to guess a simple linear regression would yield lines with very small slopes (i.e. very small change with time).

 

[SL2]

XP and W10 wasn't never as good as W7 from day one.

W10 dropped the control over WU, it got completely dumbed down, because they know what's best for you. You know, Windows updating and restarting became a problem all of a sudden, for a LOT of people.

It was a HUGE drawback, and seemingly a fact people seems to have forgotten in this thread, and no, you don't have to explain why MS did it, or workarounds.

 

[Lycanwolfen]

I run Win 11 on my gaming box works great of course I do not have TPM anything. When Microsoft tells me I need TPM I say um it's windows which means you just trying to get me to upgrade my hardware so you can support bit locking my hard drives so MS can be a ransomware provider. I just use Rufus all the time install windows 11 without any TPM 4 GB ram BS. I have had Win11 running better on older computers then newer.

I am still workin on getting Windows Server 2022 to be a gaming box. Because I love that server 2022 you can uninstall completely Windows Defender it saves over 1 GB of ram