January 2, 2026
Grab popcorn: OS wars reload
Windows 11 surges among PC gamers on Steam as Linux stalls
Windows 11 wins Steam, Linux stalls — commenters shout 'cope,' bias, and upgrade blues
TLDR: Steam’s December 2025 survey shows Windows 11 jumping 5.24% to 70.83% while Linux stalls at 3.19%. Commenters erupted: some declaring Windows the clear gamer pick, others calling it one-month “cope” and blaming headline bias, with moderates saying it’s mostly Windows 10 end-of-life upgrades, not dramatic platform shifts.
Steam’s December survey says Windows 11 just grabbed a big win with a 5.24% jump to 70.83%, while Linux barely dipped to 3.19% — and the comments turned into an OS cage match. Windows fans crowed “the users have chosen Windows. Again,” while Linux diehards shot back with “cope” and “it’s one month, chill.” One user snarked, “Windows is doing great! Says ‘Windows Central’,” accusing the source of bias, and another argued the story is hype, pointing to a thread where last day’s optimism about Linux now looks shaky.
Not everyone wanted to relitigate the OS war. Some said the real tea is hardware: more rigs with 32GB RAM, the NVIDIA RTX 3060 taking the top GPU spot, and Meta’s Quest 3 leaping 24% to become the most-used VR headset. Others flagged a trend toward more CPU cores, calling that “actually interesting.”
Moderates tried to calm the fire, saying Windows 11’s rise is mostly people escaping Windows 10’s end-of-life — not suddenly buying pricey Windows handhelds. Translation: this is a migration wave, not a miracle.
So yeah, Windows 11’s scoreboard looks great, Linux isn’t collapsing, and the comments brought popcorn, memes, and a reminder: one month isn’t destiny, folks.
Key Points
- •Windows 11’s share on Steam rose by 5.24%, reaching 70.83% of users in December 2025.
- •Windows 10 declined by 2.36% to 26.70%, and all Windows versions combined edged up to 94.95% share.
- •Linux’s overall share slipped slightly from 3.20% to 3.19%, though Fedora gained 0.05%.
- •NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 became the most-used GPU on Steam, overtaking the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.
- •Meta’s Quest 3 VR headset grew its user share by 24.42%, becoming the most popular and 2% ahead of Quest 2.