Valve’s June 2026 Hardware & Software Survey delivered a watershed moment for PC gaming: Windows 11 seized 70.44% of Steam users, crossing the 70% threshold for the first time. Meanwhile, Windows 10 tumbled to just 23.56%, a staggering reversal from the days when it commanded over 90% of the platform. The numbers leave little doubt—Windows 11 is now the undisputed default operating system for PC gamers, as the clock runs out on Windows 10’s relevance.

The survey, a monthly snapshot of hardware and software preferences among millions of Steam gamers, has long been a bellwether for trends in the Windows ecosystem. For years, Windows 10 stubbornly held its ground, buoyed by familiarity, broad hardware support, and a user base reluctant to upgrade without a compelling reason. That changed dramatically as the October 2025 end-of-support deadline for Windows 10 passed, and the steady drumbeat of gaming-focused enhancements in Windows 11 finally tipped the scales.

The Steam Survey: Gaming’s Unmatched Data Trove

Valve’s Hardware & Software Survey is not just another poll—it’s one of the most authoritative windows into real-world PC gaming adoption. Participants are randomly selected from Steam’s global user base of over 130 million monthly active accounts, providing a statistically robust view of what hardware and software gamers actually use. Because Steam dominates the digital distribution market for PC games, the survey’s findings often presage broader consumer trends. When Windows 11 adoption climbed slowly in the enterprise, the survey showed gamers leading the charge, and those early signals have now materialized into overwhelming dominance.

Historically, the survey has shown Windows variants collectively capturing 96–97% of Steam users, with macOS and Linux scrapping for the leftovers. In June 2026, the Windows family accounted for 96.68%, with Apple’s macOS at 1.87% and Linux at 1.39%. But the real story is the seismic shift within Windows itself. Just two years earlier, in June 2024, Windows 10 held a 57% share to Windows 11’s 36%. The June 2026 figures represent a nearly complete inversion, with Windows 11 up over 34 points and Windows 10 down more than 33 points in 24 months.

How Windows 11 Conquered the Gaming World

Several forces aligned to propel Windows 11 past the 70% milestone. The most powerful catalyst was Windows 10’s end-of-support date on October 14, 2025. After that date, the operating system stopped receiving free security updates, feature updates, and technical support for Home and Pro editions. While Microsoft offered Extended Security Updates (ESU) for enterprise customers, the consumer and gamer audience was left exposed to unpatched vulnerabilities. The message was clear: upgrade or risk running an insecure system. Many gamers, who already valued staying current for anti-cheat compatibility and performance optimizations, took the hint.

But fear alone doesn’t drive 70% adoption. Windows 11 delivered a raft of gaming-centric improvements that made it a genuine upgrade. DirectStorage, which debuted on Xbox Series X|S, arrived on Windows 11 first, drastically reducing game load times by allowing NVMe SSDs to stream assets directly to the GPU, bypassing the CPU. Auto HDR automatically enhanced the color and contrast of older DirectX 11 and 12 titles, breathing new visual life into classic games without developer intervention. And DirectX 12 Ultimate features like ray tracing, variable rate shading, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback were fully optimized for Windows 11, often demanding the updated driver model and WDDM 3.0.

Hardware manufacturers accelerated the transition, too. New pre-built gaming PCs, laptops, and DIY motherboards shipped with Windows 11 by default. NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel optimized their latest GPU drivers for Windows 11’s display subsystem, and features like Windowed Optimizations for games running in borderless windowed mode reduced latency and improved G-Sync/FreeSync compatibility. Game studios followed suit: blockbuster titles in 2025 and 2026 increasingly listed Windows 11 as the recommended OS, and some, like “Forza Horizon 6,” even required it for full feature support.

The rollout of ARM-based Windows PCs also played a niche role. Devices like the ASUS ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go 2, running Windows 11 on ARM, brought PC gaming to handheld form factors. While their Steam survey share remains small, they introduced a new cohort of gamers to Windows 11, where Windows 10 never had an ARM foothold.

Windows 10’s Long Goodbye

Windows 10’s decline on Steam was not sudden but accelerated dramatically in its final months. The operating system enjoyed a legendary run—Microsoft’s most successful OS by installed base, with over 1.4 billion monthly active devices at its peak. On Steam, it consistently held above 85% from 2018 through early 2023, only dipping as Windows 11 took off. Yet the 23.56% recorded in June 2026 marks its lowest share since the survey began tracking Windows versions in detail. For context, even Windows 7, beloved by gamers, held onto 15–20% on Steam for years after its 2020 end-of-support—but Windows 10 is shedding users much faster.

Security concerns are the primary driver. Post-October 2025, every Patch Tuesday revealed new vulnerabilities in Windows 10’s core components that would go unpatched for holdouts, unless they paid for ESU. For gamers, who often run with elevated permissions for mods and multiplayer platforms, remaining on an unprotected OS became untenable. High-profile ransomware attacks targeting game-related platforms in early 2026 further spooked the community. Community forums lit up with threads urging fellow gamers to leave Windows 10 behind, and the survey data suggests they listened.

Compatibility issues also bit Windows 10 users. Several popular anti-cheat systems, including Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye, began requiring Windows 11’s secured kernel environment for full protection, causing hiccups on Windows 10. New graphics drivers from NVIDIA and AMD, while officially still supporting Windows 10, saw their most significant optimizations applied only to Windows 11 builds. The cumulative effect turned Windows 10 into a second-class citizen for gamers, a role it was never intended to play.

The Unwavering Windows Monolith

Despite the internal upheaval, the Windows ecosystem’s grip on Steam remains absolute. The combined share of Windows versions sits at 96.68%, a figure that barely budges from month to month. macOS, even with Apple’s M-series silicon delivering impressive gaming performance and a growing library of native titles, captured just 1.87%. Linux, buoyed by the Steam Deck and Proton, climbed to 1.39%, a record high but still a rounding error next to Windows. The Steam Deck’s Arch-based SteamOS, while a darling of enthusiasts, hasn’t meaningfully eroded Windows’ dominance; many Deck owners still dock the device and use Windows for broader game compatibility.

This stability underscores a stark reality: for the vast majority of PC gamers, the choice of operating system is not a choice at all. It’s Windows, and now it’s Windows 11. The platform lock-in is reinforced by decades of DirectX investment, thousands of Windows-only titles, and peripheral ecosystems tuned for Microsoft’s OS. Valve’s own Proton compatibility layer has made incredible strides, but even Gabe Newell’s “get out of jail free card” hasn’t been enough to unseat Windows.

What This Means for Gamers and Developers

Crossing 70% on Steam sends an unequivocal message to game developers: target Windows 11 first. Studios can now assume that the vast majority of their customers are on the latest OS, with access to DirectX 12 Ultimate features, DirectStorage, and Auto HDR. This threshold often triggers a tipping point in development—when a critical mass of users is on a platform, developers stop testing extensively on older versions and feel free to use modern APIs without fallbacks. Expect upcoming tentpole releases to require Windows 11 outright, dropping Windows 10 support much as earlier titles dropped Windows 7/8 support in the late 2010s.

For gamers still on Windows 10, the writing is on the wall. Performance benchmarks comparing identical hardware on Windows 10 and Windows 11 consistently show a modest but measurable advantage for the newer OS, especially in CPU-bound scenarios thanks to optimized thread scheduling for hybrid architectures (Intel’s P-cores/E-cores and AMD’s Zen 5’s Smart Priority). Multiplayer-centric titles, particularly in the competitive shooter and battle royale genres, are quickly coalescing around Windows 11’s security and latency improvements. Those who cling to Windows 10 risk increasing game crashes, longer load times, and eventual incompatibility.

Hardware upgrades are also part of the equation. Windows 11’s strict hardware requirements—a compatible 64-bit processor (Intel 8th gen or newer, AMD Ryzen 2000 or newer), TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and UEFI firmware—were initially controversial when the OS launched in 2021. By 2026, those requirements are a non-issue for the gaming market. Steam’s own hardware survey shows that over 95% of active gaming rigs now meet the CPU generation cutoff, and virtually all modern GPUs support DirectX 12 Ultimate. The “unsupported” Windows 11 installations on older hardware, while a vocal minority, are statistically invisible on Steam.

Looking Ahead: Windows 11’s Reign and What’s Next

The 70% mark is both a capstone and a starting point. Microsoft’s Windows 11 is now the operating system that defines PC gaming, much as Windows 10 did in its prime. Internal telemetry from Microsoft likely mirrors the Steam trends, and the company can confidently evolve its gaming platform around Windows 11’s capabilities. Features like universal ray tracing optimizations, improved controller integration, and deeper Xbox ecosystem synergy will only entrench this position.

Rumors of a “Windows 12” (or the Windows 11 25H2 feature update) swirl with talk of an even more gaming-optimized core, a lightweight “Game Mode” that strips background processes, and AI-accelerated super resolution at the OS level. Whatever comes next, the foundation laid by Windows 11’s dominance ensures that the PC gaming experience will continue to improve on the back of a unified, modern platform.

For the dwindling Windows 10 cohort, the clock isn’t just ticking—it’s tolling. As Valve prepares for Steam’s next decade, the survey data makes one thing crystal clear: Windows 10 is no longer the default gaming OS, and its slide toward obsolescence is only accelerating. The era of Windows 11 gaming is not coming; it’s here, and it has the numbers to prove it.