Eh, there’s a first time for everything, I guess! Valve has released the latest statistics on Steam, and the numbers for this month are truly interesting. Windows 11’s market share there actually dipped.
The latest and greatest version of Windows actually lost a tiny fraction of its customers on the leading gaming platform.
Nothing alarming, and nothing outside the margin of error, mind you.
But this is a far cry—pun always intended—from the recent string of successes that Windows 11 achieved there, which finally saw the operating system breach the coveted 20% market share at the gaming platform.
The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey showed that the OS dropped from 21.23% to 21.12% in July. This means that Windows 11 effectively lost 0.11 percentage points over the course of the month, making this the first time that the operating system has not gained any users.
And, in fact, even lost them.
According to the latest Hardware and Software Survey on Steam, the most popular operating system in Steam is the 64-bit version of Windows 10, which gained 1.91 points to end up at 73.1%. Windows 11, with its 0.11 decline, is listed at 21.12%.
In third place is the 64-bit variant of Windows 7, which dipped by 0.97 points to 2.04%.
The two alternate platforms occupy the final two places, with macOS listed at 1.74% after a decline of 0.71 points and Linux gaining 0.05 points to come in at 1.23%.
Still, this does not mean that Windows 11 has reached a critical mass or is doomed to failure with gamers. Microsoft does not force users to upgrade to its latest OS and even allows rolling back to Windows 10, which means it is natural to expect a slow climb with periodical dips.
Besides, participation in this monthly survey over at Steam is optional, so there is always a margin of error with these numbers.
With the upcoming Windows 11 version 22H2 rumored to arrive in September, the next couple of months should provide us with a better, clearer picture of the operating system’s direction.
This first major update brings a number of quality-of-life improvements along with gaming-related features and should provide a better indication of gamers’ overall reception.
