Valve survey revealed almost 45% of gamers are still using Windows 10

Window 10 is reaching the end of service this year in October, despite that, almost 45% of gamers on Steam are still using the OS. Valve hardware survey for January 2025 reveals 44.41% of users are currently on Windows 10 accounting for almost half of the users on the gaming platform. Compared to that, Windows 11 was at 55.38%.

There are a lot of factors affecting the numbers as not everyone is running the latest GPUs and processors. On top of requiring better specs, the OS also uses more resources to run many simply don’t want to deal with all this. Apart from home users, internet cafes and other places also add to those numbers.

Gamers refuse to upgrade to Windows 11

There’s an old saying ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ which is something happening across PC gaming. Games run fine on Windows 10 as they run on Windows 11, in fact, many will argue that Windows 10 may be superior when it comes to game stability. For those wondering what happens after the end of service, the OS simply won't get security updates.

Windows 11 also has its own set of requirements that gamers can bypass easily, but the lack of benefit from an upgrade pushes out all motivation. As such, it seems like unless players are forced to upgrade, they will probably choose not to, meaning unless game developers stop supporting Windows 10, people will still use it.

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What are the benefits of Windows 11?

The biggest benefit people get by upgrading to Windows 11 is probably much better security against malware and such unless the user installs it intentionally (or unknowingly). Along with that, there are quality-of-life updates which is a preferential topic. Microsoft also says Windows 11 also improves performance and efficiency, something which gamers refuse to believe.