In a significant shift in the PC gaming landscape, Valve’s August 2024 Steam Hardware Survey reveals that Windows 11 has finally dethroned its predecessor as the platform’s most popular operating system. This milestone comes nearly three years after the OS’s initial release, highlighting the gradual but steady adoption rate among gamers.
Key Highlights:
- OS Wars: Windows 11 Victorious
- Windows 11 usage: 49.17% (↑)
- Windows 10 usage: 47.09% (↓ 3 percentage points)
It’s worth noting that these figures represent only users who opted into the survey. Global statistics from Statcounter paint a different picture, with Windows 11 at 31% market share compared to Windows 10’s dominant 62%. However, Windows 11’s upward trajectory since April 2024 suggests a growing preference among gamers.
- Mobile GPUs Dominate Growth Charts
Top 4 GPUs by popularity growth: - GeForce RTX 4060 (Mobile)
- RTX 3060 (Mobile)
- RTX 4050 (Mobile)
- RTX 4070 (Mobile)
This unprecedented mobile GPU dominance hints at a potential surge in gaming laptop popularity or significant laptop refreshes among Steam users.
- Desktop GPU Landscape
- Biggest gainer: RTX 4070 (↑ 0.17 percentage points)
- AMD RDNA 3 frontrunner: Radeon RX 7900 XTX (↑ 0.03 percentage points)
- Reigning champ: RTX 3060 (despite ↓ 0.37 percentage points)
- GPU Market Share
- NVIDIA: 75%+
- AMD: 15.4%
- Intel: 7.7%
- Language and Cultural Insights
- Top language: Simplified Chinese (35%)
- Runner-up: English (31.1%)
The dominance of Simplified Chinese likely correlates with the recent launch of “Black Myth: Wukong,” which not only boosted language stats but also contributed to Steam’s new concurrent user record of 37 million.
- Hardware Trends
- RAM: 16GB remains the sweet spot for about 50% of users
- CPUs: AMD slightly increased its market share to roughly 33%
- VRAM: 8GB still leads, but 12GB models are gaining traction
Despite the shift towards 12GB VRAM cards, some gamers argue this still falls short for modern AAA titles, indicating potential future demand for even higher VRAM capacities.
This latest Steam survey offers a fascinating glimpse into the evolving PC gaming ecosystem. The rise of Windows 11, the surprising dominance of mobile GPUs, and the ongoing GPU wars between NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel paint a picture of a dynamic, ever-changing landscape. As we move further into 2024, it’ll be intriguing to see how these trends develop and what new shifts emerge in the world of PC gaming hardware.
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