One-third of Steam users run Windows 10

Valve updated its Hardware & Software Survey today for January, revealing that more than one in every three gamers on its Steam PC gaming community and store is now using Windows 10. The latest and greatest from Microsoft may have just passed 11 percent market share, but gamers tend to be early adopters: on Steam the figure is already at 34 percent.

In its first month, Windows 10 adoption on Steam passed Windows 8, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. After two months, Windows 8.1 was also conquered, leaving just Windows 7. Six months in, Windows 10 is getting very close to dethroning the top dog.

Here is Steam’s operating system market share list for January 2016:

• Windows 10: 34.05 percent
• Windows 8.1: 14.43 percent
• Windows 8: 2.06 percent
• Windows 7: 42.08 percent
• Windows Vista: 0.42 percent
• Windows XP: 2.31 percent
• Mac OS X: 3.55 percent
• Linux: 0.95 percent

Windows 10 is poised to pass Windows 7 this year, probably in the next few months (before June, we’d wager). Other Windows versions are losing adoption on Steam, meaning Windows 10 is gaining more than Windows 7 is losing.

Breaking down the numbers even more, here is how each operating system version fared:

Between December and January, Windows 10 jumped 1.59 percentage points — a small increase compared to months in 2015. These gains have to come from somewhere: Windows 8.1 dropped 1.06 points, Windows 8 slipped 0.14 points, Windows 7 fell 0.50 points, and Vista dipped 0.03 points. XP somehow managed to gain 0.14 points, but this is merely a blip and nothing too significant.

On the whole, Windows still dominates Steam with over 95 percent share. Mac and Linux slipped 0.01 points each in January. While the three operating system families fluctuate from month-to-month, Windows stays above the 95 percent mark on Steam.

Windows 10 was installed on over 75 million PCs in its first four weeks and passed 110 million after 10 weeks. Last month, Windows 10 passed 200 million active devices — Microsoft is aiming for 1 billion devices running Windows 10 “in two to three years.”

Gamers on Steam are certainly doing their part to help.