Windows 10 continues to lose Steam

Continuing a tradition that's been going for a while now, Steam's user base continues to run contrary to the overall OS market. Just like last month, while Windows 10 continues to make slow gains in the OS market overall, Steam's users seem to be switching back to Windows 7 at a brisk pace, according to the Steam Survey for the end of September.

Interestingly, all versions of Windows except 64-bit Win7 declined last month. Presumably the shift from Win10 to Win7 would be linked to recent revelations about the way that Windows 10's Game Mode actually breaks games; it's less clear why users would be switching from 64-bit Win8 and 8.1 to 64-bit Win7 now, since none of those Windows versions has changed significantly for years.

The nascent Linux Shift is missing here, too. Why is Ubuntu 16.04 gaining market share, while the newer 17.04 sheds users? Why is Linux slumping overall among gamers, but gaining market share rapidly on a global level?

Part of the answer could lie in the nature of the Steam Survey itself: it's a voluntary survey, whose respondents are basically self-selecting, rather than a random sampling of the overall marketplace (which is what NetMarketShare and StatCounter are doing). Survey sampling bias may well be at play here, and the Steam Survey numbers should always be taken with a grain of salt.


Even if this shift back to Windows 7 by Steam users is a real thing, I don't know that it means much for Microsoft's overall strategy. Steam users are, by definition, buying and installing their games from Steam, and not from the Windows Microsoft Store, so it's not like Microsoft will miss out on any significant amount of revenue, and Microsoft have been signalling a willingness to work more closely with Valve on VR and other things, anyway.

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, though, and for how long, since this is exactly the kind of action that dissatisfied Windows 10 users should be taking. Are Steam users truly so pissed about Game Mode that they're switching operating systems? How many of them will go to the trouble of switching? And if Microsoft announce that Game Mode is fixed, how many of them will switch back?

UPDATED OCT. 5th

John Sutton at Game Debate had some interesting things to say about this:

As for the reasons, this isn’t just a simple case of Windows 10 users abandoning Microsoft’s latest operating system in droves. There’s been no major opt-out solution that could have spurred this change. Instead, it’s far more likely that the number of Steam users has just exponentially increased during the past month. The influx of users is predominantly using older operating systems, and possibly lower-end systems.

The reason behind all this? Look no further than PUBG’s explosion in popularity in China. The proportion of Chinese language users on Steam jumped from 20.8%  to 30.55% within September alone. The lifting of the gaming ban in China is really beginning to take effect, and they’re finding PC to be a great home for gaming. Almost a third of Steam users (based on these estimates) are Chinese speakers.

It's a really interesting shift for Steam, and an example of the dramatic impact PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds popularity is having on PC gaming. This is an entirely new market for Valve, although it's treading heavily on the toes of TenCent's WeGame, which is also heavily state-backed. Should Steam begin to eat into WeGame's success, some sort of backlash could be on the cards.

Oh, that's right... PUBG is PC gaming, right now, isn't it? I'd forgotten all about PUBG for a blissful second or two, there. Silly me.