Steam's hardware survey shows Windows 8 outpacing Mac

The latest Steam hardware survey figures have been released, and it looks like good news for Microsoft. Despite Gabe Newell's own labelling of Windows 8 as a "catastrophe for everyone in the PC space", the survey shows a definite uptake, with Windows 8 becoming the fastest growing OS among Steam users. With 4.69% of Steam users now operating the interface formerly known as Metro, it's even overtaken the combined Mac OS X variants.

Windows 8 is only the fourth most-used OS on the hardware table, but month-on-month growth is where it's really performing. Even the mighty Windows 7, currently used by just under three quarters of Steam users, experienced a 0.85% decline in users, while Win8 picked up a healthy 2.66% growth on the previous month's total. Bizarrely, the 64-bit variant of Vista also saw a meagre 0.03% increase. Who's still buying Vista? Why?

Unfortunately we can only see growth and percentage totals, with exact figures being unavailable. Steam's monthly hardware survey is an opt-in service, so the polled data only reflects those happy to show off their components.

Elsewhere, the hardware survey continues to be a fun little tool for comparing your rig against millions of gaming neighbours. For instance, a quick browse of most used components reveals that not many people are prepared for Cysis 3's hefty high performance specifications .

Thanks, Neowin .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.