As Steam is a leading gaming platform, the survey is important because it provides an insight into hardware platforms across the gaming industry. Of course, it’s no surprise that Windows dominates the PC gaming world. Steam’s November 2019 survey shows Microsoft’s platform increased its market share by 0.26%, moving it to 96.28%. Interestingly, Windows 10 saw a slight drop in usage, dipping 2%. However, the platform still dominates Steam users’ hardware, with 74.23% of the overall market. Windows 7’s numbers increased by 2.92% and is used by 18.47% of users. Looking to other platforms, Mac remains the third most popular platform with 2.92%, followed by Linux with 0.81%.
VR Market
VR is a growth area for all platforms. For Microsoft, its position remained stable on Steam in November with Windows Mixed Reality headsets taking 5.1% of the market. Still, VR remains a nascent niche on Steam, and Windows MR accounts for just 0.1% of all gamers on the platform. Still, Windows Mixed Reality has plenty of work to do. Oculus Rift still dominates the Steam VR market with 35.55%, while Oculus Rift S has 14.83%. Next up is the HTC Vive with 32.64%. Microsoft also offers WMR apps on its Store, which is completely disconnected from Steam. It also sees use in enterprise environments, where in-house software and other solutions are more common.