Historical Steam survey data suggests the Big Switch from Windows to Linux has yet to happen

Though Microsoft claims it's actively working towards rebuilding user goodwill, many PC gamers are calling time on Windows. It helps that Linux is the best it's ever been for gaming, thanks to dedicated distros such as Bazzite. However, historic Steam survey results suggest the Big Switch is a ways off yet.

Redditor xVarrick compared Steam Hardware & Software Survey results from March 2024, March 2025, and March 2026. Their resulting bar graph simplifies the data by combining all OS versions and distros under unified banners, but still makes it pretty clear that the vast majority of Steam users have continued to stick with Windows; 92.33% of Steam's user base are using some version of Windows as of March 2026.

That said the Windows user base did shrink overall by 3.77% between March 2025 and March 2026. While that's not exactly eye-watering stuff, a correlational increase of 0.77% can be seen in macOS users. As you may already suspect, Linux enjoyed the greatest uptick, with an increase of 3% bringing it to a total 5.33% slice of the pie.

Steam's most recent all-time peak of concurrent users was 42,686,616 according to Steam.db. So even though 5.33% doesn't feel massive, just 5% of all concurrent Steam users still represents about 2,134,330 gamers who are playing on a Linux distro of some kind. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Steam's latest survey puts SteamOS Holo 64 bit top of that particular pile.

But back to Microsoft—as Nick observed last July, Windows 11 has been with us for almost five years and for three of those, it was never the OS of choice amongst Steam users. Comparing survey data from October 2021 to July 2025, Windows 11 only overtakes Windows 10's Steam user count in October 2024.

OS distribution in Steam from March 2024 to March 2026 from r/linux_gaming

Support for Windows 10 officially ended in October of last year (unless you either pay $30 for Extended Security Updates, or live in the European Economic Area, in which case you'll get those updates for free). So it's definitely an interesting wrinkle that 27.03% of gamers sticking with Microsoft are still using Windows 10 as of March 2026. Good luck to 'em, I say—though this particular group has also shrunk by a massive 14.57% from the month before.

Safe to say, many of those users likely upgraded to Windows 11, as that OS saw an uptick of 13.09%. However, strict system requirements mean that many with elderly Windows 10 machines are faced with either figuring out how to bypass these requirements via tools like Flyby 11 and Rufus or—dun dun dun—making the leap to Linux. While I'm not among this crowd, I must admit that Linux's customisability is making serious headway in eroding my loyalty to Windows.

Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.

Best gaming rigs 2026