Windows 11 surges among PC gamers on Steam as Linux stalls

Summary

Steam’s December 2025 survey is now live. In November 2025, Linux gained a small but notable amount of momentum, giving some users hope that the trend would continue into December.Instead, Linux’s install base has stalled. It even slipped by 0.01% month on month, which is minor, but still an unexpected pause after several months of gradual growth. For Windows users, the picture looks very different. Windows 11 recorded a sizeable jump, rising by 5.24% overall.That increase is likely being driven by users migrating away from Windows 10 as its end-of-life occurs, but could also be a surge of new users from devices like the Xbox Ally or other Windows handhelds. The data suggests that while Linux has not reversed course, Windows 11 is currently absorbing most of the platform’s growth.What the December 2025 Steam survey tells usSteam's current logo. (Image credit: Steam)Thanks to its latest surge, Windows 11 now accounts for 70.83% of all Steam users. Windows 10, by comparison, dropped by 2.36% to 26.70%.In November 2025, Linux recorded a small 0.15% increase, while Windows 11 grew by around 2%. That context makes December’s shift feel more pronounced.Looking at the wider picture, all versions of Windows combined made up 94.79% of Steam users in November. In December 2025, that figure edged up to 94.95%.Linux saw a very slight decline overall, slipping from 3.20% to 3.19%. However, not all distributions moved backward, as Fedora recorded a 0.05% increase in users.All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.The RAM crisis continues to inflate memory prices and potentially jeopardize Valve's plans for its Steam Machine PC. (Image credit: Windows Central | Valve | Crucial)Memory trends also shifted. Systems with 32GB of RAM grew by 2.11%, while 16GB configurations fell by 0.80%.On the graphics side, the NVIDIA RTX 3060 is now the most commonly used GPU on Steam. It overtook November 2025’s leader, the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.Virtual reality adoption a...