Windows 10 Dominates PC Gaming, New Steam Data Shows

Megalith

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The latest hardware survey from Steam shows that Windows 10 is growing at an “incredible pace.” It is expected that over half of all Windows users on Steam will be running W10 64-bit by the end of the season.

Windows 10 was the only version to increase its Steam share last month and both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors gained new points last month. On the other hand, all the other versions of Windows lost ground, most likely as everyone moved to Windows 10 thanks to the gaming improvements that Microsoft implemented in this version, including DirectX 12 support. As far as non-Windows platforms are concerned, there’s still no reason for Microsoft to worry about gaming competition on the PC. Mac OS X has 3.60 percent of the Steam market and version 10.11.5 is the only one that improved its share last month, growing 1.13 percent.
 
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Never mind Windows 10; I'm surprised to see so many gamers still on 32 bit versions of Windows.

If only Microsoft had spent as much time persuading 32 bit users to upgrade to 64 bit as they did with upgrades from 7 and 8 to 10.
 
They should have just upgraded 32 Bit users to 64 Bit by default where CPU allows it (meaning 99% of the time) , most regular users have no clue about it anyway, let 32bit PC computing die already.
 
Never mind Windows 10; I'm surprised to see so many gamers still on 32 bit versions of Windows.

If only Microsoft had spent as much time persuading 32 bit users to upgrade to 64 bit as they did with upgrades from 7 and 8 to 10.
They do push it quite a bit, but the issue comes from having to move from 32bit t o 64 bit means doing a clean install. Most users have no intention of doing that.
 
They do push it quite a bit, but the issue comes from having to move from 32bit t o 64 bit means doing a clean install. Most users have no intention of doing that.

To fix that, The next version of Windows should be 64bit only.
 
But really it's thanks to the free upgrade jammed down everyone's throat
 
Never mind Windows 10; I'm surprised to see so many gamers still on 32 bit versions of Windows.

If only Microsoft had spent as much time persuading 32 bit users to upgrade to 64 bit as they did with upgrades from 7 and 8 to 10.

You can't do a direct upgrade from 32bit to 64bit for Windows. Only way these user can get to 64bit is do a fresh install. Good news is if they did the free upgrade and have the digital entitlement License, then they can just use the media creator tool and reinstall the 64bit version without issue.
 
To fix that, The next version of Windows should be 64bit only.

Unfortunately, that is not an option since there are still a ton of inline business applications as well as some manufacturing control systems that only work on 32bit platforms and don't like the WoW64 emulation in the 64bit version of Windows. It will be a least another decade before this comes to pass and by that time, we will be looking at 128bit vs 64bit.
 
Unfortunately, that is not an option since there are still a ton of inline business applications as well as some manufacturing control systems that only work on 32bit platforms and don't like the WoW64 emulation in the 64bit version of Windows. It will be a least another decade before this comes to pass and by that time, we will be looking at 128bit vs 64bit.

What emulation? There's no 32bit emulation in windows x64. I wish there was, so 32bit drivers could work.
 
What emulation? There's no 32bit emulation in windows x64. I wish there was, so 32bit drivers could work.

You do know that is how the 64bit version of Windows works right. Its call Windows on Windows or WoW64. Not really an emulator in nature, more of a secondary layer to allow 32bit apps to run in the 64bit environment, but it is required to allow 32bit applications to run correctly on 64bit Windows. It is basically emulating a 32bit environment for 32bit apps in a 64bit platform. So that is why I just call it an emulator.

WoW64 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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No upgrade from 32bit to 64bit is pure Microsoft fault. Apple had no problem doing upgrades from 10.6 which was 32bit to 10.7 which was 64 bit drivers and by 10.8 everything was 64bit. The fact that Microsoft still has 32bit is mostly for the countries that get our leftover machines that cannot run 64bit but they really should just kill it. Now add in the fact that the default for office is still 32bit and it really makes you wonder...Yes for compatibility reasons for Access and Visual Basic but still...
 
No upgrade from 32bit to 64bit is pure Microsoft fault. Apple had no problem doing upgrades from 10.6 which was 32bit to 10.7 which was 64 bit drivers and by 10.8 everything was 64bit. The fact that Microsoft still has 32bit is mostly for the countries that get our leftover machines that cannot run 64bit but they really should just kill it. Now add in the fact that the default for office is still 32bit and it really makes you wonder...Yes for compatibility reasons for Access and Visual Basic but still...
none of this is true except for office defaulting to 32bit.
 
You can't do a direct upgrade from 32bit to 64bit for Windows. Only way these user can get to 64bit is do a fresh install. Good news is if they did the free upgrade and have the digital entitlement License, then they can just use the media creator tool and reinstall the 64bit version without issue.

Windows 10 upgrade is basicly the install renaming the old windows folder and installing fresh then copying old profile and program data files back
 
Is an 8% difference really "dominating"?

Win 10: ~ 45%
Win 7: ~ 37%

Regardless, it's clear that Win 10 has a growing lead over a product that isn't sold anymore.
 
The funny thing is that Steam statistics are meaningless to Microsoft they want people using the windows store not steam. Good luck convincing people to switch to a platform that is restrictive, buggy, and anti-customer in every fiber of it's being.

My view is that if a game is only on windows store it's not on PC. I'm sure as hell not going to buy anything from there.
 
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I like the app store for some of the free apps but have no interest in ever buying any. Thanks for the free apps Microsoft, now get Persiscope on there.
 
Not that surprising, as stupid as it seems, I know I upgraded to be ready for Direct X 12 (makes little sense, but gamers like Tech). I still have my media center on Windows 7, and my Arcade on XP, but the other 2 computers are Windows 10. I hope vulcan takes off, so I can dump Windows 10. Reminds me of Open GL back in the day, but MS big pockets pushed Direct X till they beat everything else down. Not so sure they can to it this time. We'll see.
 
Lets see how much that number changes after the free giveaway is over. This time next year I bet it will have grown only another 5%.
 
Weird that every OS listed that has both 32/64 bit versions, they state 64bit but not 32bit.
But Vista, mighty vista, they feel a need to list 32bit? Weird.
 
Windows 10 is a nice OS. Does have issues on old games. Windows 7 will always be my favorite though. People still using XP need to come into the future or at least use windows 8.1 if they hate 10.
 
Not sure why anyone would be using x32 much these days, just installed Win X insider build 14379 a couple days ago on the main and it's kicking along fine.

x64 on most versions has been available standard a long time now on most copies.
 
majority of system s sold with windows vista was 32bit (driver issues with 64bit as when vista came they could no longer just slightly tweak the driver to make it work on the newer OS they had to rebuild it from ground up ATI and Nvidia was very good at making BSOD or in ATI case restart driver of death)

almost all windows 7 systems are 64bit (unless it had a SIS chipset)

some windows 7 systems was sold with windows 32 (not sure why seen Loads of Dell systems 32bit installed over the long years windows 7 has been out) the best one was a gaming system with 16GB of ram had windows 7 32bit installed on it lol (only 2.8GB was usable until i reloaded it)

also some people Might of upgraded from vista 32 to windows 7 so still 32bit unless they did a clean install (as the Key is dual 32 and 64bit ,some people did not know even some odd ball techys) from vista onwards keys have always been dual 32/64bit
 
The funny thing is that Steam statistics are meaningless to Microsoft they want people using the windows store not steam. Good luck convincing people to switch to a platform that is restrictive, buggy, and anti-customer in every fiber of it's being.

My view is that if a game is only on windows store it's not on PC. I'm sure as hell not going to buy anything from there.

Quoted for truth. Well said.
 
Give me a few minutes to snicker at the .3% of Vista users.....
 
37% of windows 7 users are giving them problems. How many Windows 10 users were tricked into installing the software? I hope they sue to get back to windows 7.
 
They should have just upgraded 32 Bit users to 64 Bit by default where CPU allows it (meaning 99% of the time) , most regular users have no clue about it anyway, let 32bit PC computing die already.

You cannot upgrade a 32 bit install to 64 bit. You have to backup and redo everything from scratch and this is the case no matter what OS you are using.

But really it's thanks to the free upgrade jammed down everyone's throat

So? It all thanks to a free upgrade, hurr durr?

Quoted for truth. Well said.

The circle jerk in here is strong. :D
 
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The circle jerk in here is strong. :D
Let's hear it for the windows store team.

Can you give real arguments for it, or this is the best you can do?

No, the sandbox environment is not an argument for it. We don't need peer reviewed MS approved titles to run in a sandbox. Or perhaps microsoft wants to completely eliminate their QA team, and will let anything on to the Windows store without looking at it first? That's sure going to establish the windows store's name.
 
I was one of the people that switched to Windows 10 (from win7) last month.

Ironically, it was partially Steam's fault, because I was finally able to get an HTC Vive and I needed windows 8 or higher to get Bigscreen Beta to work.
 
These numbers seem low in my opinion considering how aggressively MS shoved users into W10 from 7 and 8. I gave W10 an honest try but after about the 4th bsod that forced a reinstall each time, I gave up. Oh yeah and the persistent Candy Crush crap that no matter what I did continued to download itself over and over.
 
Windows 10 upgrade is basicly the install renaming the old windows folder and installing fresh then copying old profile and program data files back

Yes this is correct if upgrading the same version, but not true if you are wanting to go 32bit to 64bit. You cannot do a direct, in-place upgrade from 32bit version to a 64bit version of windows. This has been stated since Windows 7 straight from Microsoft. The only way to go from 32bit to 64bit is a full wipe and reload of the OS.
 
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