Mar 03, 2026 16:00:00

Steam's latest hardware and software survey finds Windows 10 accounts for over 40% of all devices, a jump of over 10% from the previous month.

Valve, the company that operates Steam, regularly publishes the results of its hardware and software surveys of Steam users. Data on the operating systems used by Steam users in January 2026 reveals that Windows 11 will decrease by approximately 10%, while users using Windows 10

, for which support ended in October 2025, will increase by approximately 12%.

Steam Hardware & Software Survey
https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey is a monthly, voluntary, and anonymous survey of the types of computer hardware and software used by Steam users.

According to data from January 2026, 96.61% of Steam users are using Windows, with MacOS at 1.16% and Linux at 2.23%, down from the previous month.

The image below focuses on Windows users in January 2026. While 56.28% of users were using Windows 11 64-bit, a decrease of 10.43% from the previous month, Steam users using Windows 10 64-bit increased by 12.46% to 40.25%. In June 2025, Windows 11 usage among Steam users exceeded 60%, and Windows 10 usage remained around 30% thereafter. However, the January 2026 statistics show a sharp increase in Windows 10 usage.

Reddit points out that the sudden change in data is due to a change in the users who responded to the survey. In fact, the following is a look at the 'Language' category from Steam's Hardware & Software Survey for January 2026. While most languages, including English and Japanese, have declined, only 'Simplified Chinese' has increased significantly, by 30.74%.

According to a Reddit user , there is a month each year when the number of Chinese-speaking users in Steam's Hardware & Software Survey doubles. In fact, statistical data for February 2023 showed a 25.35% increase in Chinese-speaking users, followed by a 7.62% increase in January 2024 and a 20.88% increase in January 2025. While there are fluctuations from year to year, significant changes are seen around the beginning of the year. This is thought to be due to factors such as an increase in Chinese users logging in due to the Lunar New Year and an increase in game purchases and in-game purchases due to the Asian culture of New Year's gifts.

Therefore, some argue that the January 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey is heavily influenced by the increase in the Chinese population, and that it is best not to overestimate the results based on comparisons with the previous month. In fact, as of July 2025, when Windows 11 surpassed Windows 10 in global market share, Windows 10 held a 51.86% market share in China, compared to Windows 11's 32.39%.

Windows 11's global market share finally exceeds Windows 10, more than three years after its release - GIGAZINE