Eh, there’s a first time for everything, I guess! Valve has released the latest statistics on Steam, and the number for this month are truly interesting. Windows 11 market share over there actually dipped.
The latest and greatest version of Windows actually lost a tiny faction of its customers on the leading gaming platform out there.
Nothing alarming, and nothing outside the margin of error, mind you.
But this is a far cry — pun always intended — from the recent strings of successes that Windows 11 achieved over there that finally saw the operating system breach the coveted 20% market share over at the gaming platform.
The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey had the OS go down from 21.23% to 21.12% for 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 had not gained any users.
And, in fact, even lost them.
The most popular operating system in Steam according to the latest Hardware and Software Survey on 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, we have the 64-bit variant of Windows 7, which dipped by 0.97 points to end up at 2.04%.
The final two places are occupied by the two alternate platforms, 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 gamer. 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 direction where the operating system is headed.
This first major update brings a number of quality-of-life improvements to go with gaming related features, and should be a better indication of the overall reception from gamers.
