Gamers switched to Windows 11 at a 69.2% rate after Windows 10 reached its end of life.

 

The November 2025 Steam Hardware & Software Survey reveals that the number of Windows 11 users increased by approximately 2% in a single month, reaching 69.2% and becoming the primary operating system for gamers on Steam, completely replacing Windows 10. Meanwhile, Windows 10 continued to decline, reaching only 29.06%.

Linux also set a new record, with its user share increasing to a record 3.2%. This is partly due to the popularity of Steam Deck and the continued development of Proton/SteamOS, leading some users to migrate from Windows 10 to Linux. macOS stood at 2.02%, a slight decrease, but the overall picture remained largely unchanged.

In terms of hardware... A significant shift has occurred as the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Laptop has taken the top spot as the most popular graphics card on Steam for the first time, with a 4.22% market share, surpassing the long-held RTX 3060 Desktop. The RTX 3050 remains close behind in third place. Overall, NVIDIA continues to dominate the GPU market with a massive 73.83% share, followed by AMD at 18.05% and Intel at 7.74%.

Newer generation GPUs like the Blackwell series are gaining more traction, with the RTX 5070 rising to 11th place with a 2.23% share, surpassing the RTX 4070's 2.16%. While still trailing the RTX 3070 at 2.34%, this signals increasing adoption of the newer series.

Overall, the preferred specs for Steam players remain in the "value for money" category, such as 16GB of RAM and 6-core CPUs, with popular choices like the i5-12400 or Ryzen 5. The 5600X, with its 8GB VRAM and 1080p display, still dominates the market with over 50% market share. Clearly, most gamers still opt for mid-range specs that offer good frame rates, the ability to play newer games, and are affordably priced.

In conclusion, the end of support for Windows 10 is a significant factor driving a substantial shift of gamers worldwide to Windows 11, reflecting the continuously evolving direction of the PC gaming market in 2025.