Steam’s monthly snapshot makes it official: a noticeable chunk of Steam players have finally jumped to Windows 11, and they did it with the clock ticking toward Windows 10’s end-of-support deadline. Valve’s September survey shows Windows 11 reaching 63.04% of surveyed Steam users—up 2.65 percentage points month-over-month—while Windows 10 slipped to 32.18%, a drop of 2.90 points. This short, sharp movement comes as Microsoft’s free-support window for Windows 10 closes on October 14, 2025, pushing a mix of cautious upgraders and last-minute migrants into action.
Windows 10’s end of support is a hard calendar date: after October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide regular security updates, feature updates, or support for consumer versions of Windows 10. Microsoft also offers a one‑year consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program to cover eligible devices through October 13, 2026, but that is a stopgap rather than a long‑term solution. The company’s guidance is clear: upgrade to Windows 11 where possible, enroll in ESU if necessary, or replace unsupported hardware.
Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey remains a cornerstone data source for the PC-gaming community. The survey is voluntary and captures telemetry from a slice of active Steam clients each month; it’s not a statistically perfect cross-section of every PC, but it is a high-signal indicator of trends inside the gaming ecosystem. Valve’s September dataset is the one that shows the recent jump to 63.04% Windows 11 among respondents.
This is a transition driven by calendar, platform economics, and the technical realities of modern gaming ecosystems—expect the next Steam survey and publisher notices to keep shaping the migration story.
Source: PC Gamer A bunch of Steam players just made the switch to Windows 11 as Windows 10's death date is now less than two weeks away
Background
Windows 10’s end of support is a hard calendar date: after October 14, 2025, Microsoft will no longer provide regular security updates, feature updates, or support for consumer versions of Windows 10. Microsoft also offers a one‑year consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) program to cover eligible devices through October 13, 2026, but that is a stopgap rather than a long‑term solution. The company’s guidance is clear: upgrade to Windows 11 where possible, enroll in ESU if necessary, or replace unsupported hardware. Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey remains a cornerstone data source for the PC-gaming community. The survey is voluntary and captures telemetry from a slice of active Steam clients each month; it’s not a statistically perfect cross-section of every PC, but it is a high-signal indicator of trends inside the gaming ecosystem. Valve’s September dataset is the one that shows the recent jump to 63.04% Windows 11 among respondents.
What happened in the latest Steam survey (and why it matters)
The headline numbers are concise and consequential:- Windows 11 (64-bit): 63.04% (↑ 2.65% MoM)
- Windows 10 (64-bit): 32.18% (↓ 2.90% MoM)
- Linux: 2.68% (↑ 0.04% MoM)
- macOS: 1.91% (↑ 0.14% MoM)
These figures come straight from Valve’s September hardware survey and were covered by industry reporting highlighting the surge as migration momentum accelerates ahead of the end-of-support deadline.
- Steam’s userbase is a concentrated sample of active PC gamers, a group that tends to refresh hardware and adopt gaming features earlier than the general PC market. A migration here often foreshadows broader vertical changes—game developer support matrices, anti‑cheat expectations, and peripheral vendor decisions.
- The shift isn’t just cosmetic: Windows 11 includes platform-level features (DirectStorage, tighter integration of Auto HDR, newer driver model expectations) that can become practical dependencies for future games and drivers.
- Publishers and platform operators often sync their support boundaries with Microsoft’s lifecycle. As Microsoft winds down Windows 10, more third parties may follow suit and declare formal end-of-support for older OS versions, which raises practical risk for laggards.
The migration drivers: why gamers are moving now
Several concrete forces are converging to push this migration:- The calendar: The Windows 10 end‑of‑support cut-off on October 14, 2025 is the proximate driver. When free security updates stop, risk becomes real for online gamers who rely on regular patching to stay secure. Microsoft’s support pages and ESU documentation make the stakes explicit.
- New hardware flow: Modern prebuilt systems and a majority of contemporary gaming laptops now ship with Windows 11 preinstalled, increasing natural adoption among buyers.
- Feature and driver dependencies: Some modern gaming features and driver stacks are optimized around Windows 11. While not strictly exclusive, this ecosystem tilt nudges performance-conscious users to upgrade.
- Industry housekeeping: Valve’s own policy changes—such as the announcement that 32‑bit Windows client support will be deprecated—signal a broader industry move away from legacy architectures and toward a Windows 11+ world. This trimming of legacy support provides a practical nudge for anyone still running older systems.
How reliable is the Steam Hardware Survey? Read this before panicking
It’s important to treat Steam’s survey as a directional, high‑quality telemetry slice rather than a precise census. Key limitations include:- The survey is voluntary and samples active Steam clients; it skews toward engaged PC gamers and early adopters.
- Small monthly percentage swings can be amplified or muted by sampling noise or by short‑term behavioral shifts (e.g., seasonal purchases, Steam sales, new hardware releases).
- The sum of percentage changes does not always reconcile perfectly due to rounding and multi‑platform device effects.
The practical consequences for players and publishers
Gamers
- Security risk: After October 14, machines on Windows 10 will no longer get routine security patches unless protected by ESU, increasing exposure to exploits and stability regressions. Microsoft’s ESU program can extend security updates for eligible devices for a year—but it’s a cost and logistical burden for many consumers.
- Compatibility pain: Some anti‑cheat systems now require modern platform security features such as Secure Boot or kernel-level drivers that are better supported on modern Windows versions. This can lead to future situations where certain titles either refuse to run or require manual intervention on unsupported OS builds.
- Upgrade friction: Windows 11’s minimums (TPM 2.0, UEFI Secure Boot, supported CPUs) mean that some older machines will need platform-level upgrades (CPU + motherboard + RAM), turning what might have been a simple OS transition into a full‑platform replacement.
Publishers and platform operators
- Support policy shifts: Some publishers have already signaled they will not guarantee the continued compatibility of their games on Windows 10 after Microsoft’s cut-off date—this is a practical fall‑through if QA and platform support are withdrawn. Game-specific notices have already appeared in the wild.
- Anti‑cheat and client requirements: Valve and third‑party anti‑cheat providers are rationalizing their supported stacks, which can push deprecation timelines for older Windows releases and 32‑bit clients. Valve’s own decision to end support for 32‑bit Windows clients next year is another example of this trend.
Linux and macOS: alternatives, but marginal in gaming today
The Steam survey shows Linux at 2.68% and macOS at 1.91% of the survey pool—tiny but nonzero. Linux adoption among gamers has been buoyed by SteamOS and Valve’s Proton translation layers, and distributions like Arch and Linux Mint figure prominently among users. Still, switching to Linux is not a simple panacea for Windows 10 holdouts: compatibility gaps, driver support, and proprietary anti‑cheat systems remain blockers for many AAA titles. Small month-to-month upticks in Linux usage are interesting, but they don’t yet constitute a mass exodus.What to do if you’re still on Windows 10: a measured playbook
If you haven’t upgraded yet, here’s a pragmatic sequence to manage risk and make a safe transition:- Inventory your hardware and compatibility
- Check whether your PC meets Windows 11 minimums: TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and a supported 64‑bit CPU. Use Microsoft’s upgrade assistant or your OEM support pages for clarity.
- Back up everything now
- Create file backups and system images. If you need to revert after an upgrade attempt, a verified backup saves days of recovery work.
- Evaluate ESU if necessary
- If your hardware cannot move to Windows 11 and you need more time, research consumer ESU eligibility and enrollment deadlines; ESU provides security updates through October 13, 2026 for enrolled systems.
- Test Windows 11 before committing
- If possible, test Windows 11 on a spare drive or secondary machine. Verify game performance, driver stability, and the behavior of anti‑cheat-protected titles.
- Consider hardware costs
- If your CPU is unsupported, the practical upgrade path frequently involves a CPU + motherboard swap—and possibly new RAM (different DDR generation). Budget accordingly.
- Use trusted tools for edge cases
- Community tools (e.g., Rufus bootable media options) can bypass Microsoft’s install checks in some scenarios, but these approaches carry risk: Microsoft reserves the right to reduce update availability on unsupported installs, and anti‑cheat systems may not work reliably. Use caution and accept the tradeoffs.
Costs, economics and the hardware ripple effect
The Windows 11 compatibility gate isn’t just an OS topic—it’s an economic multiplier. When a CPU is unsupported, upgrading is rarely limited to a single silicon swap. Typical consequences:- New CPU → new motherboard (socket/chipset) → possible RAM upgrade (DDR generational mismatch) → potential PSU or case changes for certain form factors.
Risks and warning signs
- Partial upgrades and support limbo: Running patched-but-unsupported Windows 10 builds or using install‑bypass tools can place your machine into a precarious middle ground: Windows may run, but future feature updates, driver compatibility, and security guarantees are uncertain.
- Publisher decisions: If a publisher chooses to stop testing or supporting Windows 10 for future updates, you may find that new features or even patches won’t work correctly on older OS builds. Several publishers have already issued statements tying their support to Microsoft’s lifecycle.
- Anti‑cheat fallout: Anti‑cheat software that depends on modern driver models or secure boot mechanisms can fail or block gameplay on unsupported or modified systems. Restoring functionality may require a platform upgrade.
A few things to watch in the coming months
- Next month’s Steam survey: With the Windows 10 support cutoff now days away, the next Steam Hardware & Software Survey will be an important data point for seeing whether this uptick continues or flattens.
- Publisher support notices: Expect more third parties to clarify or tighten their OS support matrices in the immediate aftermath of Microsoft’s end-of-support date.
- Valve’s 32‑bit deprecation effects: As Valve phases out 32‑bit client support in early 2026, watch for tiny edge-case populations to be nudged harder toward full 64‑bit OS installs.
Bottom line
The September Steam Hardware Survey shows a clear, measurable migration toward Windows 11 among Steam users—a group that tends to anticipate or amplify broader platform changes. The proximate reason is the October 14, 2025 end of free updates for Windows 10, but the migration is also supported by preinstalled Windows 11 hardware, new platform features, and publisher/anti‑cheat housekeeping. Valve’s data and Microsoft’s lifecycle policy together make a persuasive case: if you care about security, compatibility with future game updates, and smooth anti‑cheat integration, planning a move to Windows 11 (or an ESU enrollment if you need time) is the pragmatic choice.This is a transition driven by calendar, platform economics, and the technical realities of modern gaming ecosystems—expect the next Steam survey and publisher notices to keep shaping the migration story.
Source: PC Gamer A bunch of Steam players just made the switch to Windows 11 as Windows 10's death date is now less than two weeks away
