Driven by Chinese PUBG Players, Windows 7 Now Most Popular OS on Steam

[Raevenlord]

Steam's October survey has brought with it some interesting tidbits and reversals regarding the state of the world's OS shares. The latest such survey from the company shows Windows 10 lose its crown as the most popular OS for gamers, shadowed by a resurgence of Windows 7. Microsoft may be looking for increased Windows 10 market share throughout the world, but there's one country that has been the most troubling for the company's efforts: China. Remember that Microsoft had to introduce its own China Government edition of Windows 10 to the Chinese government, or otherwise risk the country not to transition to its new OS. However, it seems that that fact has led Chinese people's trust in the Microsoft OS to decrease even more; and absent of access to the China Government edition for regular customers, they're simply choosing to stay within the confines of Windows 7.

All of this seems pretty academic, so let's get some numbers here: Windows 10 shed 17.38% points in October, down to a 28.6 percent share, with the 64-bit version accounting for 28.23% of that share. At the same time, Windows 7 has gained 21.47% points in the same month, climbing to 65.46% of share (63.60 percent for the 64-bit build, and 1.86 percent for the 32-bit edition). Where's the connection to Chinese users here though? Well, take a look at the Steam OS language stats for the same month: simplified Chinese rose by 26.83% up to 56.37%, against a decrease in practically all other languages, and a very considerable 13.4% drop in English.





But where's PUBG in all of this, though? Well, that slight piece of the puzzle you can glean from Steam Spy's analysis of PUBG's player base, which shows an adequate (roughly) 600% percent increase in player count from around 1 million players in August to around 6 million as of October. Around 3.1 million of those entered the scene starting in September. PUBG is simply a phenomenon in China, and Chinese users really seem to be trying to make the most of it while they still can: reports peg the game as being in line for a ban from the Chinese government, as a Chinese Gaming Association has deemed PUBG to go "against Chinese values and ethical norms."



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[StrayKAT]

That's hilarious. And cheers me up. The citizens don't have much power, but it's nice to know they think for themselves.

I like Win10, but shame on MS. Shame on the whole tech world rather. Governments are rarely representative. Stop interacting with them.

 

[Ubersonic]

It may be driven by the Chinese but it's not just them, every major update to Windows 10 since launch has made the O/S worse (features removed, UI made worse, etc). To the point where I have ended up flipping my office workstation back to 8.1 for the ease of use and I would seriously be considering doing the same for my home rig if it were not for DirectX 12.

 

[Melvis]

Classic! Always said Windows 7 was the best to game on haha

 

[StrayKAT]

It may be driven by the Chinese but it's not just them, every major update to Windows 10 since launch has made the O/S worse (features removed, UI made worse, etc). To the point where I have ended up flipping my office workstation back to 8.1 for the ease of use and I would seriously be considering doing the same for my home rig if it were not for DirectX 12.

That's where I depart. I think 10 has the better elements of 8 without getting rid of the classic desktop experience. If I were to revert to anything it'd be 7.

 

[TheOne]

It may be driven by the Chinese but it's not just them, every major update to Windows 10 since launch has made the O/S worse (features removed, UI made worse, etc). To the point where I have ended up flipping my office workstation back to 8.1 for the ease of use and I would seriously be considering doing the same for my home rig if it were not for DirectX 12.

Not to mention, for some, the Creator Update and Fall Creator Update have/had issues with games.

 

[Baum]

For all non gamers:
PUBG= "Player Unknown Battlegrounds" = Casual game Shooter, the "DOTA" of shooters or like overwatch.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/g...thing-need-know-playerunknowns-battlegrounds/

well i don't know but windows 7 is okay as an os, but does it throttle newer faster systems?

 

[StrayKAT]

For all non gamers:
PUBG= "Player Unknown Battlegrounds" = Casual game Shooter, the "DOTA" of shooters or like overwatch.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gaming/g...thing-need-know-playerunknowns-battlegrounds/

well i don't know but windows 7 is okay as an os, but does it throttle newer faster systems?

I don't know about throttling, but I apparently have to manually install chipset drivers. Windows itself will you it's too out of date for Kaby Lake.

 

[Readlight]

I dont believe motherboard who is made for w7 will haw all driver for w10 some older cpu also are slow on w10 plus there are loots of errors whit no trust and unnecessary stuff in it.

 

[Parn]

Win10 is the reason I have no plan to upgrade past Skylake or move to Ryzen. Sure I can use Linux (I do for my workstation and home server), but I need Windows for my gaming.

 

[TheDeeGee]

2020 is near.

And rose tinted glasses suck.

 

[Boosnie]

Classic! Always said Windows 7 was the best to game on haha

Why bother.
I'm pretty cozy with my Win 98 SE.

 

[StrayKAT]

Win10 is the reason I have no plan to upgrade past Skylake or move to Ryzen. Sure I can use Linux (I do for my workstation and home server), but I need Windows for my gaming.

If gaming is your thing, then sooner or later people will want a game that might use DX12...or who knows what else down the road. I'm not sure how a gamer never makes the jump indefinitely. This is Microsoft we're talking about. Every would be contender or alternative is a smallfry in the end. Ironically, even "old" Microsoft.

 

[P4-630]

LOL!

I'm using windows 10 on my new laptop (HP September 2017 model), it works fine on my laptop even after large updates sofar so I can't complain and I do like it.
I do use windows 8.1 on my main rig though, won't upgrade to 10 this year since I still fear problems after a 10 upgrade....
Or it might download/install drivers I don't want on my desktop....
And I really don't like the idea of a clean install...

 

[Boosnie]

Really, as a sw developer and heavy user the only thing I condemn to MS (and by condemn I mean I'd throw the responsable person into a pit full of fire ants and wearing cerimonial bullet ant gloves ) the stupid willingness to swap the control panel with a bunch of unusable, toned down apps that expose 1/4th of the intended (and proper) functionality. So, the wonder of simply press the super Key and typing your way to the desired controlpanel app is gone and, for me at least, that was the real feature MS missed for years in their oses.

 

[StrayKAT]

Really, as a sw developer and heavy user the only thing I condemn to MS (and by condemn I mean I'd throw the responsable person into a pit full of fire ants and wearing cerimonial bullet ant gloves ) the stupid willingness to swap the control panel with a bunch of unusable, toned down apps that expose 1/4th of the intended (and proper) functionality. So, the wonder of simply press the super Key and typing your way to the desired controlpanel app is gone and, for me at least, that was the real feature MS missed for years in their oses.

People like my mom and dad don't even use the dumbed down settings. And the people who do know their way around detailed settings. So yeah, it's a feature not meant for anyone.

 

[john_]

Maybe this is a nice indication to NOT take Steam stats as an absolute measure of market shares.

 

[Ubersonic]

I dont believe motherboard who is made for w7 will haw all driver for w10

Windows Vista/7/8/10 are all variants of NT6, and as such drivers are almost always intercompatible (the obvious difference being 32/64 bit ones), you can just install your motherboards W7 drivers on W10.

 

[Vayra86]

Maybe this is a nice indication to NOT take Steam stats as an absolute measure of market shares.

Hey! Another person who's seen the light

Windows 7 is the new XP, get used to it.

Meanwhile I'm here rocking 10 and its doing just fine, oh well. Note; this is still running from the Windows 7 install of 2013, in-place upgrade to 10, have never clean installed. Had a few bumps with Windows security update recently, which was fixed within 6 days. Beyond that, zero issues.

 

[P4-630]

Who needs DX12 at the moment....
Thereby I think upcoming AAA titles will still have an option to play it in DX11....No?

 

[StrayKAT]

Hey! Another person who's seen the light

Windows 7 is the new XP, get used to it.

Meanwhile I'm here rocking 10 and its doing just fine, oh well. Note; this is still running from the Windows 7 install of 2013, in-place upgrade to 10, have never clean installed. Had a few bumps with Windows security update recently, which was fixed within 6 days. Beyond that, zero issues.

If anyone has a good excuse though, it's China. I just don't understand elsewhere.

 

[Vayra86]

Who needs DX12 at the moment....
Thereby I think upcoming AAA titles will still have an option to play it in DX11....No?

Yah people who jumped on 10 thinking they'd need it for DX12 are deluded. Its going to take at least 3-4 years before it'll be mandatory, and even then, all depends on if you want to play the newest stuff which generally is the worst idea.

I remember all those people panicking about DX12 feature levels two years ago. Look where we are now lol. And even then; there are other APIs now and I don't see DX12 getting widespread adoption, its an afterthought still. Look at Vulkan performance in DOOM - now that's is a type of FPS stability I"d jump to a new API for. DX12? Not so much, unless you run weak systems/mobile systems and want to use UWP stuff on all devices, which is one of MS's pipe dreams that is never going to come to fruition proper.

 

[StrayKAT]

Who needs DX12 at the moment....
Thereby I think upcoming AAA titles will still have an option to play it in DX11....No?

I'm just saying...if you are specifically a PC gamer, trying to avoid the master of that platform is futile. You're more screwed than every other type of computer user (office,servers,media,etc), Eventually at least. Anyone who thinks they'll drive pc gaming without them is silly. Some more rich than others.

 

[Ubersonic]

Windows 7 is the new XP, get used to it.

Windows 7 will never have the longevity XP has had because nowhere near as many users are tied to it as were to XP, staying on 7 is more of an aesthetic choice.

 

[Vayra86]

Windows 7 will never have the longevity XP has had because nowhere near as many users are tied to it as were to XP, staying on 7 is more of an aesthetic choice.

Absolutely, but tell that to all the cementheads still running 7 now and having their free update expire