Steam users shift gears in December
Steam’s December 2025 hardware and software survey brings a small surprise. After months of slow but steady gains, Linux momentum has paused. Its share dipped by a barely noticeable 0.01%, effectively holding flat rather than continuing the climb some users were hoping for.
Windows tells a very different story. Windows 11 saw a strong jump, gaining just over five percentage points in a single month. That surge is likely linked to Windows 10 approaching end-of-life, pushing users to upgrade. New Windows-based gaming devices may also be adding to the numbers. Whatever the mix, Windows 11 is clearly where most growth is landing right now.
As a result, Windows 11 now dominates Steam, having just over 70% of users. Windows 10 continues to slide and is now sitting below 27%. When all Windows versions are combined, the platform strengthened its grip slightly, edging closer to 95% of Steam’s total user base. Linux’s overall share slipped from 3.20% to 3.19%, but the picture isn’t entirely negative. Fedora quietly gained users, showing that interest hasn’t disappeared, it’s just not accelerating.
Hardware trends also shifted. PCs with 32GB of RAM became more common, while 16GB systems declined. NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 reclaimed the top GPU spot, overtaking the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.
In VR games, Meta’s Quest 3 stands out, jumping sharply in popularity and pulling ahead of the Quest 2.
