Over 21 percent of Steam gamers is now using Windows 8.x
Click here to post a comment for Over 21 percent of Steam gamers is now using Windows 8.x on our message forum
ClexRex
wow that spiked fast...I know several reasons for gamers to have upgraded in the last couple months but didn't think it would have impacted the numbers like that...im using 8.1 64 and asides from the metro...I use start8 its a solid os and very fast and stable for the most part and does handle some games a tad bit better.
schmidtbag
I'm still not fond of these tests, because they're a poor representation of OSes outside of Windows. I would say 99% of all Steam users who run the software on something other than Windows also runs it on Windows. But you don't know what these % represent. Is this the total amount of logins? Is this based on what each individual user signed into last? Does this only count one sign-in per user? Is this based on total time signed in? Does it matter if you're in "offline mode"? And so on.
Also, the fact that "other OS" is so large suggests there is a flaw in the counting system.
Loophole35
Another thing that is odd in the latest survey is that AMD is loosing ground in the graphics segment intel is gaining but Nvidia is still the same.
ClexRex
Also havto remember the mining craze is effecting AMD GPU's by a lot...in fact a lot of people sold their AMD gpu's when the prices sky rocketed and purchased NVidia and this is fact...
Also as the data could be more clear etc...it still shows Win7 clearly at 60% still so most folks are still using win7...I think the rescent spike in win8 is the small batteflield 4 issue where it simply runs a tad bit better than win7 also this is known for several other titles...and then the rescent Christmas and black Friday deals etc.
Xendance
Why on earth would they count number of logins?
For the survey purposes, Steam probably checks the IP-address or MAC of the computer along with what OS it's currently using. That way you can easily count people using multiple OS's with Steam. One people using both Windows and Linux would be counted once in both categories.
haughernaut
If you actually used Steam for any decent amount of time you would have known that they actually do a hardware survey. Randomly, when you log on you might be selected to do a hardware survey. They ask you if you have a microphone and how fast your internet is. After that, they run a system scan on your computer to check all your hardware and they scan all your running processes as well. They used to check to see what programs you also had installed(which when they did that showed that like over 60% of Steam users had torrent clients installed).
I believe you can trigger a hardware survey prompt by installing Steam on a new computer. As from having to reinstall Steam from reinstalling my OS a time or two I've been prompted to participate.
Nvidia AND AMD have both taken a small drop in percentage of user base as a larger number of Intel integrated graphics users have started using Steam.
scrapser
I have my Steam games on my Windows 7 computer. I have some older Steam games like Half-Life 2 on my WinXP computer. But for some reason I cannot connect to Steam through my WinXP computer anymore. I think Steam support for WinXP is either gone or going away very soon.
As far as Windows 8 is concerned, I will use Windows 7 until I absolutely must switch to Windows 8 which will likely be sometime in 2020 if I remember correctly. Windows 8 support will end in 2023. Of course, who knows what the world will be like by then. Maybe we will all be playing head games using nano-chips embedded in our brains.
Asgardi
Its strange that Valve even releases these numbers. To me these are very embarrassing numbers for them. They hate Windows 8, which is by far the second popular OS among their users and they push Linux which has popularity of 1/5 of Vista. LOL.
sykozis
So, Steam isn't good enough to determine Windows8.x market share for gamers....but it's the single reference for GPU sales that's accepted by so many on this forum.....even though the statistics reported by Steam are completely wrong. So, if it's acceptable for GPU user statistics, how is it now acceptable for Windows8.x user statistics? It still represents less than 25% of the world-wide PC market....regardless of the figures you're looking at.
schmidtbag
Linux doesn't have a reason to gain popularity. There are very few AAA titles and of the ones that are available on Steam, most of them are only playable on nvidia.
Another thing to consider is while linux is pretty user friendly today (regardless of what desktop environment you use), its still very different from Windows. People hate change, and if Windows currently offers a greater gaming experience (as a whole), why would anyone want to switch?
I use linux regularly, and it is installed on all of my computers. However, anything beyond an indie game I will only play on Windows. Linux is catching up - the Intel and Nvidia drivers have already started to out-perform Windows, but it still needs more time until people have a compelling reason to dedicate their gaming computers to it.
proFits
Installing Windows 8 tonight, will run a whole lot of steam on it.
Wish I could've waited for the official release of 8.1... but I can't... I just can't.
Corrupt^
Said it before and I say it again, if you look past the whole new metro menu stuff, it's slightly less of a resource hog then W7.
Not that W7 was such a giant resource hog, but why not go for improvement if it's possible?
Denial
Because people are incapable of looking past the metro UI stuff? You don't see anyone complaining about the performance of 8, it's always the UI. I personally have no problems with it. With a keyboard its essentially no change from Windows 7. With a mouse it's slightly different and it took me a week to adjust too but after that I like it better.
UZ7
Not bad, I've had windows 8 on my laptop since... november 2012? then converted my main rig a few weeks after. On the other hand, while the metro ui stuff is not bad (imo) I still went for classic shell and been using it ever since đŸ™‚
AlexKidd5000
AMD's open source drivers have made a ton of progress in the last year too.
But there are like 7300 games for Windows, as opposed to 500 for Linux. So a difficult time indeed that Valve will have convincing gamers to use Linux. Even though I like Linux far more than Windows, and barley even use Windows anymore, even I know that Linux has alot going against it.
kens30
Same here using dual boot with Windows 8.1 pro with start8 as my main OS and Win 7 as secondary mainly for some software compatibility issues.
For me too it's a solid os and basically much faster than win 7 in everyday tasks.The way i see it it's like a fully optimized light weight win 7 under the hood with much better better usage of multiple threads and i like the fact that generally the colors are more vibrant on the desktop and in games too.
There is no way i would give up win 7 and upgrade to win 8.1 now, the only reason that made me buy win 8 initially was the great deal they had (only 30 euros) on the upgrade version when it was first launched.
As for the statistics showing of over 21% of steam users using windows 8.x. could be the fact that not everyone like us has the knowledge of building their own PC part by part and are buying pre-build pc's with Win 8.x.
chanw4
Well, the problem i think is the UI is not useful at all, i thought the type and search thing is good cos i use it mostly on my vista and windows 7 but it turns out the type and search function in windows 8 is limited that some control panel stuff is not searched and i have to search stuff from the control panel a lot as a workstation. Desktop wise, from what i saw, there are some clunky implementation that you can clearly see its for touch screen device which makes desktop user hate it even more yo go into the 'metro UI'.
Bluedog
I'm like some of the others. Been running with Start8 & Objectdock since May without any issues to speak of. Don't even know Metro is there.
Loophole35
Using classic shell here I really like 8.1.
lukas_1987_dion
True
W7 x64 here (aka W7.1 as it is with SP1 ;-p) and I'm really happy with it, no compatibility issues, no need to use other programs etc, very stable OS, I will not switch to W8.1, W8.2 etc.., because I don't need to... Why I would want to switch to W8? Because of DX11.2, or Modern UI? Please...
Also my MOBO, CPU and GPU is all from AMD now, no problems with drivers or compatibility (just MB AM3+ Phenom II x6 @ 3.8GHz+, 8GB 1666MHz of system RAM with HD 7970GHz and performance is amazing in all games in FHD on max settings). I'm very happy with my current PC, it is something wrong with it? lol :banana:
