PC gamers upgraded to Windows 11 at half the rate of Windows 10, Steam hardware survey shows

Valve soldier man on a pc.
(Image credit: Valve)

Windows 11 users on Steam are up 1.25% from February, and now account for 16.84% of all users. Windows 10 is still the dominant OS for Steam users with a commanding 74.69%, though it dropped a percentage point since February.

For some historical context, 36.97% of Steam users were using  Windows 10 seven months after its launch back in 2016. That's more than half the adoption rate from folks going from Windows 7 to Windows 10 then Windows 10 to Windows 11. 

In case you're wondering how many Linux and MacOS users are hanging around: as of March, total MacOS users sit around 2.43% and Linux remains at a steady 1%.

On the graphics card front, Nvidia GPUs make up 77.13% of what Steam users are playing on, with AMD in second place with 14.15% and Intel in third at 8.52%.  The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is the most commonly used GPU among Steam users at 8.18%, while our favorite GPU, the RTX 3080, is only being used by 1.24% of folks on Steam.  

Our recommendation was to wait to upgrade to Windows 11 when we reviewed it last year, and that's still our advice for now—though we'll probably change our tune once we see the Windows 11 version of DirectStorage in action.  

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Jorge Jimenez
Hardware writer, Human Pop-Tart

Jorge is a hardware writer from the enchanted lands of New Jersey. When he's not filling the office with the smell of Pop-Tarts, he's reviewing all sorts of gaming hardware, from laptops with the latest mobile GPUs to gaming chairs with built-in back massagers. He's been covering games and tech for over ten years and has written for Dualshockers, WCCFtech, Tom's Guide, and a bunch of other places on the world wide web.