Microsoft’s Windows 11 operating system is growing in market share among PC gamers for the first time in months as Linux’s market share starts to see its first decline.
For the past year, Linux market share has been steadily growing throughout Steam. While some of this has been caused by the success of Valve’s Steam Deck, other distros such as the gaming-focused Bazzite have seen massive success over the last 12 months.
According to the latest Steam hardware survey for May 2026, Linux has now fallen in popularity from the hardware survey for the past two months. Following a high of 5.33% of Steam users in March 2026, the OS’ market share fell to 4.52% in April, and now to 3.99% throughout May.
While Linux falls, Windows 11 is on the up-and-up again. Windows as an OS accounts for 93.58% of all Steam users according to the latest hardware survey. However, Windows 11’s market share has grown by a total of 2.02% over the last month with that version of the OS now accounting for 69.76% of all users.
This all comes after a particularly poor year for Microsoft with many labelling the company as “Microslop” for its egregious AI push and poor system updates. Earlier this year, correlating with the peak of Linux’s height on Steam in March 2026, Microsoft announced its “committent to Windows quality”.
In the blog post, Microsoft announced a new shift in Windows 11 updates with a focus on quality, reducing disruptions, and improving speed. While the OS was fast during its 2021 release, later Windows 11 updates have caused the OS to become slower and less functional, which turned many years away.
Of course, while Linux market share is down from its peak, Linux is more competitive than its ever been. Alongside Linux-focused devices such as Steam Deck and Steam Machine, the ingenuity of Proton has meant that the vast majority of Windows games and software are now usable on the OS, although there are still issues with anti-cheat.
Unfortunately, those aforementioned Linux-based devices are now in a tough position. Valve’s Steam Machine has yet to launch due to volatile market conditions, and the Steam Deck has seen a huge price increase due to the ongoing RAM shortage, which is expected to continue well into 2027.
The reality is that Linux will likely never eclipse Windows in the foreseeable future, but the threat of a reduced market share has caused Microsoft to change tact. With that said, it’s not clear if players are returning to Windows because of Microsoft’s commitment to improvements, or if they’ve simply grown tired with the quirks of the Linux platform.
