Windows 8 popularity continues to grow amongst PC gamers

June 20th, 2013, 23:29 Posted By: wraggster

The results of Valve’s recently published Steam hardware survey for April have revealed that gamers are increasingly adopting Windows 8 as their operating system of choice for gaming.
Over the past month alone, the number of Steam users running the OS has risen by one per cent. Whilst that may sound insignificant at first, it’s a big jump when taking into consideration Steam’s 50 million registered accounts and 4.5 million daily users.
However, the figures only include users who have opted to take part in the survey and don’t take into consideration the service’s entire user base.
Windows 8 is now run by 12 per cent of Steam users who elected to participate in the survey, playing second fiddle only to the OS’ predecessor, Windows 7, which continues to dominate with its user share of 70 per cent.
Microsoft’s flagship now outpaces both the Mac OSX and Linux platforms.
Steam’s monthly survey collects data from participating users in order to learn more about the systems that users are using to run the digital games service.
Information such as processor, graphics card and operating system selection is recorded anonymously for the purpose of ensuring the service remains optimal for users, regardless of their personal hardware and software choices.
But outside of the advantages it provides for technical support and stability, the survey is an interesting insight into what kind of PC setup the modern gamer is running. The figures are likely to surprise many, particularly given Valve founder Gabe Newell’s recent comments about Windows 8, along with the firm’s investment into the Linux platform, recently launching a dedicated Linux port of Steam.
Following the release of Windows 8, Newell publicly lauded the service as a ‘catastrophe for everyone in the PC space’ whilst moving to highlight the importance of Linux and the firm’s planned investments into the platform in a attempt to make it a viable choice for gamers.
But despite Newell’s claims, it appears that gamers are sticking with Windows as their OS of choice when it comes to gaming, despite a selection of Steam’s games portfolio now being readily available on the Linux platform.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/...-gamers/031223

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