Windows 10 has become incredibly popular with gamers

Microsoft’s promise to put much more focus on gaming with Windows 10 has made it really popular with PC gamers, not to mention the fact that most people were able to upgrade to the new operating system for free. According to last month’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey, nearly a fourth of all Steam users are now using Windows 10, and that’s after just a little more than two months. The rate at which Steam users are adopting Windows 10 is actually much higher than the overall average for PC users, and it’s still on the rise.  

Detailed within the September 2015 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, Windows 10 adoption is continuing to climb quickly among Steam users. Rising up from 17 percent of all Steam users during August 2015, roughly one out of four Steam users have now upgraded to Windows 10. That makes Windows 10 the second most popular operating system among Steam users, still trailing behind Windows 7’s 46 percent share. Windows 8 lost nearly twice as much market share month over month than Windows 7, essentially falling to third place with slightly less than 22 percent of all Steam users. Of course, Windows remains the dominant overall platform among all Steam users with a 96 percent share. Moving down the list, OS X users make up roughly 3.2 percent of Steam users and Linux clocks in at just under one percent. Interestingly, Steam users are much more likely to upgrade to Windows 10 than the rest of the computing population across the world. StatCounter estimates that overall Windows 10 usage climbed to about 7.6 percent in September while the estimation from NetApplications was lower at 6.6 percent. Of course, either figure is significantly less than the adoption rate among Steam users. Windows 10 adoption has also slowed somewhat within the overall population, but continues to rise rapidly among Steam users.