Steam Survey: Windows 11 is rising, Windows 10 still dominating
Microsoft has not revealed any information on how well its Windows 11 operating system is doing. While Microsoft did speed up the delivery of the new version of Windows recently, it has not revealed any numbers so far.
Third-party stores and services provide a rough view of how successful Windows 11 is when it comes to the percentage of desktop devices that run the operating system.
AdDuplex stats for January 2022 listed a usage share of about 16% for Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system. The company monitors Windows 10 and 11 devices only, and the number is likely on the high side.
Statcounter, a counter service for websites, listed Windows 11 with 2.6%, a number that is likely on the low side.
Valve's Steam platform collects data from its users as well. The company runs monthly surveys, optional for customers, and uses the information gathered from these surveys to create hardware and software statistics.
The stats for January 2022 see Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system at 13.56%, an increase of 3.41% over the previous month.
Windows 10 lost 3.92% at the same time, but sits comfortably at 77.82% of all systems surveyed. Windows 7 rose by 0.49% surprisingly to 3.73% and Windows 8.1 dropped by 0.01% to 0.67% of all surveyed devices.
Linux and Mac OS sit at 2.2.77% and 1.06% respectively according to the January 2022 survey.
The 13.56% may also be a bit on the high side, considering that Steam is a gaming platform and that gamers are often interested in running the latest and greatest on their systems. Gamer PCs may also have a higher compatibility rate with Windows 11 than non-gaming devices, as modern games are more taxing and require better hardware.
Not all Windows 10 devices can be upgraded to Microsoft's Windows 11 operating system directly. Microsoft changed the minimum system requirements of Windows 11 and that decision blocks the upgrade on devices that don't meet these via Windows Update. While there are ways to circumvent the block and install Windows 11 on incompatible devices, it means that millions of devices will run into end of support problems in 2025 when Windows 10 reaches its end of support.
Microsoft announced recently that Windows 11 will be offered to all eligible devices ahead of schedule. The company's initial plan was to make the offer to all eligible PCs, those that meet the minimum system requirements, by mid-2022. The usage share of Windows 11 will continue to rise in the coming months, but it will be interesting to see how it develops after the offer has been made to all eligible devices.
Now You: will Windows 11 surpass Windows 10 in usage share?
I think most people who hate win 11 are just salty because they’re using antique hardware.
It’s working fine for me. Every single new version of Windows will always have the people who don’t like the new version. Hell, I know people who still use Windows XP and complain that they can’t run stuff on it and MS are evil and then complain more about newer versions of Windows that they’ve never actually used.
Nobody cares what they think, life moves on for us, they stay stuck in the past.
It’s the other way, antinque hardware people can just install older Windows while new hardwares will only support newer Windows.
Win 11 is just bad. In Win 10 you can just switch between 2 Offices instantly, now it needs 1 hover and 2 clicks. In Win 10 you can compress folders with just one right click, now the right click menu is compressed so it needs more clicks.
Explorer has big useless menu while in the Win 10 you can hide that useless menu.
Volume,wifi,battery is now grouped in one place and no label on how high the volume(you need to hover).
Other people might add how useless Win11 compared to Win10.
Thank you to all the Windows 11 beta testers out there working to make the OS stable for me when it’s finally ready …
… in a few years.
Stat Counter’s stats are rubbish. They count every visit, not just unique visits. Which means the stats are severely skewed and wide open to be gamed. NetApplications was the only site that produced reliable stats and, sadly, they are no longer.
Of course Windows 10 is still dominating. MS left millions of users out in the cold with its ridiculous requirements for Windows 11. And arguing about whether or not users should upgrade to Windows 11 is folly, it’s totally subjective, as in a very personal choice. Some will, some won’t, that’s their decision and should be respected either way.
Steam survey shows statitists of a very specific group. Gamers who have gaming pc’s… pc’s that can upgrade to windows 11. These hardcore gamers 99% of the time they use a pc.. they play games. That’s the only thing they care about. Microsoft promises games will run better in windows 11 so they upgrade. I actually think the numbers are low in this group of people.
Outside of this group nobody is going to buy a pc to use windows 11 because it offers nothing better than previous windows versions and it is actually worse in productivity and limits users even more, for example a start menu that makes no sense and half of it exists for future ads and promotions and with no options for customization.
Why do you talk crap like everything is a 100% fact?
Your 84 year old ass doesn’t know anything about gamers. Gamers care about stability too, they would remain on Windows 10, because upgrading is a waste of time just like it is for someone who isn’t playing games.
The only ones that update to Windows 11 are the curious ones and they come in any shape or form.
@Dumbledalf
> The only ones that update to Windows 11 are the curious ones and they come in any shape or form.
Well, that claim isn’t 100% fact. Hence, you and Anonymous have that in common.
These are probably fanboys only hoping it will get better, but it will only get worse with the current management at Microsoft. Most people I know upgraded back to Windows 10 after they saw what productivity nightmare 11 is. Windows 11 is a mistake and shouldn’t have been announced until it was fully ready in 2025.
@Anonymous
> “it will only get worse”
How do you know?
I hope you are not one of those trolling crackpots who talk in extremes and think they know the future.
Yet if you are, no matter, as such blather is easily ignored… well, except for folks like poor Tomb Maider.
Point with the finger at the parts of the Windows 11 UI that got better.
@Anonymous
What a bunch of garbage, you know nobody, stop pretending the world goes around you and you know everyone so only people who might use Windows 11 should be fanboys because you are biased to hate Microsoft and Windows.
Did you even use Windows 11? you talked about your imaginary friends, but what about you?
Windows 11 = Windows 10… so what “productivity nightmare” is it? If your imaginary friends have trouble with it, maybe it is time for them to retire from technology and stop complaining about it.
I mean, Windows 11 opens the same apps Windows 10 does and more, because you can install other types of apps like android apps. It has Windows terminal installed and made default, it has winget installed out of the box, it has Edge Chromium installed out of the box too (like latest win10 builds).
The only thing that changed was the TaskBar and Start menu, and if people think Windows 11 sucks because it removed some features that will be added back eventually, then idiots shouldn’t be using technology, I mean, taskbar and start menu = you hit windows key and search for your app and move on, why do you need to even click anything? when you switch apps, alt tab or wintab should be enough for your super tech savvy imaginary friends.
People could literally close Explorer.exe and should be able to use Windows with no problems if they really want to. People could “cheat” and install some program launcher like Flow Launcher or Powertoys (which is meeh, since it is made for dumber people and not for the power users it should be, but it works).
You really are clueless and probably are some lazy person like most humans, just a complainer of a UI you shouldn’t even be using if you were some power user that really want to seek productivity and all those blabla words that mean nothing when you are this ignorant.
Seriously, Windows 11 run exactly the same and more apps than Win10, it fixed many issues and made things easier to handle. The only issue Windows 11 has is the dumb requirements but they can easily be bypassed so they don’t even matter.
But complaining about productivity when 99.9% of features work the same, it is stupid and if you are this super tech savvy person, a change in the taskbar should literally mean nothing because you only used it to switch apps and you don’t need it for anything else, like some clowns make it seem.
I mean, putting taskbar on the sides or top or display the whole window name like Vista and prior taskbar used to display the windows, won’t increase or decrease productivity, it is a dumb customization a person who seeks productivity shouldn’t even care about.
Complain about taskbar customizability and you might have a point, still stupid, but it is a valid point for some people who apparently don’t use a computer and just care how Windows UI looks like, even though all Windows should be doing is launching programs, the ones that really matter and the ones that you should care just a little more about their UI/UX more.
Windows = a program launcher. Lean how to close explore.exe and use it and then come back and talk about Windows sucking or some BS like that. I mean, you probably don’t even use Windows, maybe you are those lazy clowns who use Linux but complains about Windows modernizing the taskbar.
People seriously need to stop making crap up and “I know a lot of people” imaginary friends and making all this drama about some taskbar and few changes they made.
The only thing people could have a valid complaint is the right click menu, and that only matters if you use File Explorer, which you can easily use a 3rd party file explorer which will have the tabs and whatever people want, that might increase productivity, so the right click, having to do 1 click more to bring few more settings that most people don’t need, then again, it doesn’t matter. Just lazy people not wanting to do 1 more click.
But still, when people can close Explorer.exe and then come back and tell me Windows 11 is just different than Windows 10, then I will believe their BS garbage crap. Unless people want to launch settings or some windows store app, then closing explorer.exe shouldn’t even matter.
@Tomb Maider imho @Anonymous is right. W11 is a nonsense for productivity. The new taskbar is useless and start menu is awful designed. I am using W11 with all the tricks and tweaks to make it as W10 and it’s a really difference now. Some of these tweaks are available in Ghacks, and most others around the whole web that is plenty of people exhausted of getting rid of W11 productivity nightmare. An example, with the new taskar out of the box of W11 I lost near 15 minutos more per sesion of homework. Every day I do the homework at 18:00 to 20:00, with W10 I always finished before 20:00. With W11 out of the box I have never finished before 20:30. Now I almost achieve the similar hours like W10. Slow file management, weird file exploring hiding options or to click in new menus, grouped tasks by default and some tasks that can’t be show up in the main place are examples of how a bad design can convert your daily work routines in a complete fiasco. :[
@Tomb Maider
Decaf, amybe, bayme, bamye, maybe, whatever!?
Windows 11 is trash. We have to use Start Is All Back to make it useable. Microsoft ruined every single useful part of the OS.