Windows 11 sees big gains in Steam Survey December 2021 results

By Robert Carnevale
published

PC by PC, Windows 11 gains ground.

Razer Blade 15
Razer Blade 15 (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Every month, Steam releases the results of its hardware and software survey, wherein it shares some data about its users' rigs.
  • As of December 2021, Windows 11 is making a dent on Steam, with roughly a tenth of platform users now on the latest operating system from Microsoft.
  • In other news, Intel retains a very nice 69% of CPU market share on Steam.

Every month, Steam releases survey results that reveal what kind of hardware and software the platform's gamers are using. This report provides a window of insight into how Intel and AMD are faring in terms of CPU market share, which VR headsets are most prominent in the PC space, and loads more details of that variety. Steam's survey results aren't to be taken as absolutely foolproof tests of which company is doing best with gamers, but they do serve as indicators of what's what in the market.

That's why it's worth taking note of the fact that, according to Steam's December 2021 survey results, Windows 11 appears to have secured a smidgen over a tenth of Steam users' PCs. As of December 2021, it had a 10.15% market share, up 1.87% from the previous month. Windows 10 remained king with 81.74%, while Windows 7 fell to 3.24%. Windows as a whole, regardless of version, accounted for 96.19% of the Steam OS pie.

In the CPU space, Intel managed 69.27% in December, up 0.82% over November. AMD fell to 30.71%. And on the GPU side, NVIDIA continued to dominate with 76.83%, slowly encroaching on what little share Intel and AMD still hold onto.

On the VR front, Windows Mixed Reality more or less maintained its holding pattern with just 0.10% in gains, capping out at 5.69% market share in December.

Be sure to check the survey results monthly to see how these numbers fluctuate as time goes on.

Robert Carnevale
Robert Carnevale

Robert Carnevale is the News Editor for Windows Central. He's a big fan of Kinect (it lives on in his heart), Sonic the Hedgehog, and the legendary intersection of those two titans, Sonic Free Riders. He is the author of Cold War 2395. Have a useful tip? Send it to robert.carnevale@futurenet.com.

6 Comments
  • Weird. We've kept being told that Windows 11 is an abject failure in comment sections for a good half year already.
  • Bionicles certainly wouldn't run on W11, that's all I'm saying. /s no but in all seriousness, these comments can be a lot like Twitch chat. You know how it is ¯_(ツ)_/¯
  • Yes, I know, I just wanted to take a dig at those people. And kudos to you for recognizing what my avatar is. :)
  • Gamers are different, they are the ones that will go out and buy a new machine just because their graphics card is getting beyond it, not all, I do know some that will build their own machine, but most of the ones I know will just buy a new machine off the self, so these machines will have Windows 11 on. Also, a lot of gamers will just go with the flow for Windows, i have noticed, if something comes up saying click here to update Windows they will do it.
    Again, there are some gamers who will take notice of what is going on. Saying all of that, the few gamers I know have not updated to Windows 11, their reasons are too manmy problems with it.
  • if they want windows mixed reality to go anywhere in the consumer space, they need to leverage the Xbox ecosystem. allow all WMR headsets to work with Xbox. it wouldn't hurt Microsoft as they don't make any WMR headsets and the allure of the Xbox consumers may bring in new headset makers. Right now, Oculus has a walled garden for their platform. sure, you can get some Oculus games to work on WMR but it's sometimes requires so much tinkering that buying Oculus games is always a risky proposition. With the Xbox base to support WMR makers, they could then reinvest in the PC space. I love my Samsung Odyssey, Odyssey+, and HP Reverb G2. They can compare very favorably to the PSVR2 headset.
  • Let's see....if you want to upgrade your gaming machine via purchase of an entirely new machine, what OS are you likely to get with it? Oh, yeah, that's right, Windows 11! These stats are just so suspect. Personally, I hate Windows 11 and have stuck to Windows 10 on my gaming machine.