Surprisingly enough, Windows 11’s market share likely slipped last month among gamers, according to Steam’s latest survey, but there may be a reason for this.
According to the latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey in March, more and more PC gamers are adopting Windows 10, not the latest version Windows 11. Indeed, according to Steam figures, the market share of the latter is even declining, while we know that its adoption on PCs in general is certainly slow, but in constant progress.
According to Steam’s report, Windows 10 usage increased by 10.40% to 73.85%. For its part, the use of Windows 11 fell by 7.92% at the same time to reach 22.41%. The previous month, Windows 11 had yet crossed the 30% mark for the first time, before being pushed back to less than 23% this month.
Also read – Steam will soon drop Windows 7 and 8, another reason to update
Windows 11 market share is declining, we may know why
As always, Valve provides no explanation for these statistics, but it is unlikely that Windows 11’s market share has actually declined. The explanation for such a discrepancy would ultimately be quite simple.
We know that Valve does not automatically collect hardware and software statistics. Indeed, the company is content to display messages to Steam users asking them to voluntarily provide this information. So not all Steam users see the invite every month, let alone participate.
In the month of March, it is therefore possible that the message was sent to more Windows 10 users than the previous monthwhich would explain the popularity up 10% for the old version of Microsoft’s OS.
he is also possible that Valve increased the number of prompts, which would benefit the most used operating systems. According to data from Statcounter, in January 2023, Windows 10 still had 68.75% market share, which roughly matches the data relayed by Steam. It would also explain why Linux and macOS have seen their usage decline.
