Valve has published the latest edition of its Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the August 2026 data keeps telling the same story Windows enthusiasts have been watching for months: players are continuing to move onto Windows 11 and newer NVIDIA graphics cards.
The Steam Hardware Survey, which Valve updates every month, remains one of the most reliable large-scale snapshots of what’s actually running on gamers’ PCs. This month’s numbers reinforce two long-running shifts in the PC gaming hardware landscape, and neither one is slowing down.
The Windows 11 shift keeps gaining momentum
The most consistent thread in recent editions has been the steady climb of Windows 11. Since Valve began tracking the split between the two modern Windows client releases, adoption of the newer OS has climbed month after month, and the August 2026 figures continue that trajectory.
This isn’t a sudden jump but a gradual, sustained takeover. Windows 11 launched in October 2021, and for a long time Windows 10 held a comfortable lead among Steam players. Over time, though, a combination of factors has tipped the balance: new PCs ship with Windows 11 out of the box, Microsoft’s free upgrade path pushed millions of machines over, and the end-of-support clock for Windows 10 has encouraged people to migrate.
Microsoft has committed to supporting Windows 10 until October 14, 2025, after which it will receive no further security updates. That hard deadline is a major reason the survey’s numbers keep leaning the Windows 11 direction, as users and OEMs alike move away from the older OS.
NVIDIA keeps winning the GPU share war
The second trend is just as clear in the GPU breakdown. NVIDIA’s share of the Steam player base has been rising while AMD’s has gradually eroded, and the August figures carry that pattern forward.
NVIDIA’s advantage comes down to product lineup and availability. The company has pushed aggressively across the entry-level, mid-range, and high-end segments with its GeForce RTX family, and its recent cards have bundled features like upscaling and frame generation that appeal to gamers. That breadth, combined with stronger supply through retail and system-integrator channels, has let NVIDIA keep capturing new buyers while AMD holds its ground in specific price brackets.
The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: as more top-selling games and drivers optimize for NVIDIA’s feature set, more buyers gravitate toward it, which pushes developers to optimize further. AMD has responded with its own upscaling tech and competitive pricing, but the survey suggests NVIDIA is still the default choice for most new PC builds.
What the survey actually measures
Before reading too much into any single month, it helps to understand how the Steam Hardware & Software Survey works. Valve collects anonymous hardware and software statistics from Steam clients that have opted into the reporting, then aggregates those numbers into monthly reports.
The survey covers far more than just an operating system and a graphics card. It tracks CPU models, RAM amounts, storage, display resolution and refresh rate, console share, and even details like which game engines and APIs players are using. The OS and GPU sections are simply the ones that tend to draw the most attention from the gaming press.
Valve has also refined its methodology over the years, adjusting how it weights data by region and how it handles accounts with limited activity, so the numbers reflect a broad cross-section of active Steam users rather than a raw headcount. That’s why month-to-month swings are usually small and directional rather than dramatic.
What This Means for You
For everyday PC gamers, these trends are less about ranking brands and more about what they imply for the software and drivers you’ll rely on.
As Windows 11 becomes the dominant platform among Steam players, game developers and driver makers are increasingly optimized for it first. That means better out-of-the-box performance on new releases, more timely driver updates, and feature sets like DirectStorage and improved windowed-mode behavior that assume a modern OS.
Similarly, NVIDIA’s growing share pushes the whole market toward its feature set. Technologies like DLSS upscaling and frame generation are becoming table stakes, with more games enabling them by default and AMD offering competing alternatives. If you’re building or upgrading, you can expect the ecosystem to keep centering on these capabilities regardless of which vendor you choose.
For anyone still on Windows 10, the practical takeaway is that support is winding down. Microsoft has set a firm end-of-support date, and the survey’s numbers suggest the community is already moving on. Staying put is fine for now, but planning a migration makes sense as your next hardware purchase approaches.
How to Check the Latest Numbers
The full Steam Hardware & Software Survey is available directly from Valve on its website, updated monthly with downloadable data files. You can also follow coverage of each edition from outlets like Neowin, which breaks down the month-to-month changes.
If you’re curious how your own setup compares, Steam collects this data automatically. You can review what’s being shared in the client’s settings under the statistics section, and opt out entirely if you’d rather not contribute to the survey.
Source: Neowin
Over to you: Are you still running Windows 10 for gaming, or have you already made the switch to Windows 11?
