It’s the beginning of a new month, and that means Steam is able to release their latest data survey. The survey isn’t about games, particularly, but instead, Steam collects information about the computer hardware and software that their customers use.
The Steam Hardware & Software Survey: May 2016 shows that Windows 10 64-bit is still the gaming preference for Steam users. Not only that, but its usage has grown by 1.99% compared to April’s survey, making it lord over the other Windows operating systems with an impressive 40.17%.
It was only two months ago that Windows 10 64-bit surpassed Windows 7 64-bit and grabbed hold of that top rank. Now, Windows 10 has completely overtaken Windows 7 across the board, and Microsoft barely has any competition for Steam gamers with a grand total of 95.39% using Windows of one version or another. It remains to be seen if the .04% loss is anything to squirm about, but adding that to the Linux decrease as well explains exactly where Mac has found their small boost of .10%.
The data is collected automatically through the Steam client through an optional and anonymous setting. That being said, the option to participate in the survey is limited by those that are prompted to do so. This leaves a margin for error and means that the survey is not 100% accurate. With such a high percentage, though, it’s hard to imagine the flux causing much of a difference in the overall rankings.
Other interesting tidbits from the survey included the average of 8GB System RAM, Intel processors stomping AMD with 76.76% usage, and the HTV Vive being the virtual reality gaming preference for 66.61% of users instead of the Oculus Rift. The list of average PC specifications gives a very interesting insight to the type of gamers Steam attracts.
Steam releases their findings every month, but it will only be publicly available until next month rolls around. Check out the rest of the survey on Steam.
