Windows 10 continues to lose Steam

If once is an incident, twice is a coincidence, and thrice is a pattern, then it might not yet be a pattern for Windows 10 to have lost market share among Steam users for the second month in a row. Considering how flat (possibly negative) Windows 10 growth is among PC users generally, though, this somehow feels like the start of a trend.

From MSpoweruser:

Last month, Windows 10’s user base in Steam fell by 0.68%. Today, Steam has published its hardware survey report for the month of February, and things aren’t looking particularly good for Windows 10. According to the latest report from Steam, Windows 10’s user base declined by 0.9% — dropping down to 48.77%.

What’s interesting to see is that Steam’s hardware survey reports that Windows 7’s user base actually increased last month. According to the report, Windows 7’s user base rose by 1.7%, now powering 36.81% of Steam users.

[...]

The latest report from Steam is actually quite interesting to see, as more gamers seem to be leaving Windows 10 for Windows 7. Even though Windows 10 packs a lot of new gaming features compared to Windows 7, some gamers still prefer Windows 7 from the looks of things.

Up until now, Windows 10 adoption among Steam users had been higher than the OS market overall, for reasons which were never really clear. Even last month, when Win10's share of the Steam user base contracted, it was bucking an overall trend which had seen Win10 grow it's overall market share slightly. Well, not only was last month's 0.68% shrinkage clearly not some kind of blip, but the rate of migration back to Windows 7 seems to be increasing.

It isn't clear from this month's Steam data why Steamers moved to Windows 10 faster than other PC users in the first place, or why they're increasingly migrating back to Windows 7 even as Microsoft tries to win them over with additions like Game Mode and the recently-announced XBox-and-Win10-exclusive Game Pass. My hypothesis, i.e. that gamers have become desensitized to corporate bullshit, and were thus willing to just get it over with as Microsoft's Get Windows 10 campaign became increasingly aggressive and consumer-hostile, seems as likely an explanation as any.

What's becoming increasingly clear, though, is that gamers did not migrate to Windows 10 because they were excited about Microsoft's new OS, and Win10's "features," both existing and upcoming, may not be enticing enough to hold them, even after they've made the switch. With game developers avoiding UWP like the plague, both AMD and Intel now supporting the cross-platform Vulkan API, and Win10's Steam numbers now moving in the same direction as those of the overall OS market, this could be a sign of real trouble for Microsoft.