Windows 11 spikes in popularity with PC gamers, with biggest increase we've ever seen on Steam

Steam's hardware survey for November 2024 has arrived and there's been quite a surge in popularity for Windows 11.

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The breakdown of OS share for Steam gamers in November 2024 (Image Credit: Valve)

Valve breaks down all manner of stats as part of the monthly survey, and in this case, in the operating system category, Windows 11 has risen by the largest amount we can recall. As far as we're aware, the biggest previous rise was 3.4% which happened in the August 2024 survey. (Not counting months where weirdness has impacted the survey in some way, skewing some stats badly).

In November, Windows 11 rose by 4.18%, and now sits on 52.98%, with Windows 10 falling by almost the same amount - slightly less at 4.15% - to leave the older OS on 43.31%.

That represents quite a few more PC gamers on Windows 11 now, with almost a full 10% lead over Windows 10.

There are still a tiny amount of Steam users who are Windows 7 diehards, 0.21% of them in fact (but that's down a touch, by 0.07%).

Windows PCs make up 96.56% of gamers on Steam, with Linux continuing to edge forward on 2.03%, and Mac gamers sitting at 1.41%.

Windows 11 is bound to become more popular next year, given that Windows 10 runs out of support in October 2025, something that Microsoft is banging an increasingly loud 'upgrade' drum about.

Those who can't move to Windows 11 due to system requirements will be in a bit of a pickle, mind, possibly facing an expensive or fiddly upgrade for their PC (CPU and mobo, maybe more, or perhaps a TPM module), or stumping up a fee to continue to use Windows 10 for another year through to October 2026.