Windows 11 has been here for a while, but that doesn’t mean that Windows 10 users are willing to go gentle into that good night, despite its impending “end-of-life” date of October 14, 2025. As spotted by PC Guide, according to Steam’s January 2025 Hardware & Software Survey, more than 44% of the storefront’s users are still on Windows 10, with more than 55% opting for Windows 11.
Windows 11 has been out for four years now, but there are a few obvious reasons for its lack of market penetration. For one, the differences between Windows 10 and Windows 11 can be difficult to suss out at a first glance, and for most users, there isn’t really a strong reason to upgrade. For another, Windows 11 came along with some stiff hardware requirements that essentially locked out those with older processors, even though many of those machines can still run many PCs games well.
Windows 10’s end of life means that Microsoft will no longer receive software updates or security fixes, and the company has been encouraging users to upgrade for years now. It seems inevitable that the numbers will begin to shift a bit more, a process that has perhaps already started–Windows 10 had a slight majority of Steam’s userbase in September of last year, losing roughly 5% in the interim. The survey also revealed that the most popular GPU for Steam users is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, that 16 GB RAM is the most common, and that a majority of Steam users have hard drives with more than 1 TB total space and 100 to 249 GB of free space. Check out our take on the most-anticipated PC games of 2025 for more.
