Windows 11 Is Now More Popular For Gaming Handheld Devices, Beats Windows 10 To The Title

Microsoft says Windows 11 has surpassed its predecessor, Windows 10, to become the most used operating system among gamers on Steam. This marks an important milestone for the OS since its launch in October 2021. As per Steam’s hardware survey statistics for August, the use of Windows 11 by gamers has become 50.8 percent, marking an increase of over 3.4 percent from July. Windows 10, on the other hand, fell to 48.7 percent, marking a drop of approximately 3.3 percent from the previous month, reported Forbes.

The development comes embarrassingly late for Microsoft as it has already been 3 years since the launch of Windows 11. Moreover, gamers remain more updated with software than the general computing population.

Despite Microsoft’s plans to end support for the older version in October 2025, Windows 10 has maintained a strong presence among PC gamers as of now. Meanwhile, during this period, the usage rates for macOS and Linux on Steam remained unchanged.

According to Statcounter’s worldwide Windows market share figures, Windows 10 is still being used on almost two-thirds (64.2 per cent) of Windows PCs in July, and Windows 11 held a market share of approximately 32 per cent in August this year.

As per reports, leaked data from October last year showed that over 400 million devices were using Windows 11 at the time. However, this represents a slower acceptance and adoption rate of the new operating system in comparison to Windows 10, which reached the same number of active devices within a year of its launch.

Notably, the slower acceptance of Windows 11 is partially attributed to its stricter upgrade eligibility criteria, including mandatory hardware requirements like CPUs and a TPM security chip released from 2018 onwards. Many Windows 10 users were unable to make the switch despite being offered as a free upgrade due to Microsoft’s hardware requirements for Windows 11.

In comparison, millions of users were able to upgrade to Windows 10 without the requirement for new devices during the shift from Windows 7 and Windows 8 to Windows 10. This was made possible by the lack of stringent hardware constraints at the time.