For the first time, Windows use among gamers has fallen below 93% in the Steam Hardware survey while Linux use topped 5%.
Steam’s survey is big enough to signal significant trend shifts, and in March 2026, Windows 10 use fell by close to 15%. However, while you might expect them to head to Windows 11, that OS only saw its market share increase by 10.6%.
In the same time period, macOS market share increased by 1.2%, spread across a wide range of versions, while Linux increased by more than 3.1% to reach a new height of 5.3%.
(Credit: Jon Martindale via Valve)
For Linux-only results, SteamOS Holo 64-bit is by far the most popular Linux distribution with 25%. That’s no surprise considering the success of the Steam Deck and its SteamOS-based contemporaries. Other popular distros, like Arch and Mint, are also big players, with 8.8% and 6.9% of Linux users running them, respectively.
There are a few popular distros without proper name designation, such as “0 64 bit,” and “64 bit,” making it unclear what they’re running. Some have speculated they are new 64-bit versions of SteamOS that are in testing, but that’s unconfirmed. One of them may be some version of Fedora, too, since that doesn’t appear in the survey results.
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PCMag reached out to Valve for comment and we’ll update this story if and when we hear back.
Although these stats still paint Windows as the dominant platform among Steam gamers, it’s still a notable crack in the Microsoft shield. Taken in conjunction with Microsoft making repeated promises recently to enhance Windows performance and improve it specifically for gaming, it must see the writing on the wall.
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About Our Expert
Jon Martindale
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Jon Martindale is a tech journalist from the UK, with 20 years of experience covering all manner of PC components and associated gadgets. He’s written for a range of publications, including ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and Lifewire, among others. When not writing, he’s a big board gamer and reader, with a particular habit of speed-reading through long manga sagas.
Jon covers the latest PC components, as well as how-to guides on everything from how to take a screenshot to how to set up your cryptocurrency wallet. He particularly enjoys the battles between the top tech giants in CPUs and GPUs, and tries his best not to take sides.
Jon’s gaming PC is built around the iconic 7950X3D CPU, with a 7900XTX backing it up. That’s all the power he needs to play lightweight indie and casual games, as well as more demanding sim titles like Kerbal Space Program. He uses a pair of Jabra Active 8 earbuds and a SteelSeries Arctis Pro wireless headset, and types all day on a Logitech G915 mechanical keyboard.
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