Steam’s June Hardware Survey: Windows 7 on the Rise, Macs on the Decline?

Since it’s been a little while since we last took a look at Valve’s hardware survey, I figured now would be a good time to do so, for a couple of reasons. The big one being that Macs are now included in the results, giving us a relatively good idea of the success of Steam on that platform, since it’s now been available there for about two months.

Because Valve doesn’t disclose exact figures for the number of people who’ve opted into the hardware survey, it’s hard to know for sure just how much success Steam has seen on the Mac, but we are at least given some percentages to go by. As of the end of June, Mac OS X operating systems accounted for 6.17% of the total, which if you ask me, is rather incredible.

But as incredible as it may be, there was actually a decline going from May to June, albeit a small one (the total was 7.8% at the end of May). The question is raised as to the actual success of Steam on Mac so far, because that particular client has been available for two months but has already seen a slight decline. To be fair, though, the Mac client didn’t see a release at the beginning of the month, but rather more than a week in, so things might not be so even. Next month’s hardware survey might be even more revealing.

Also on the Mac side, an interesting, but hardly surprising fact, is that the most popular computer model used to access the service was a MacBook Pro, which is of course Apple’s flagship notebook line. The MacBook Pro alone was responsible for 48.62% of the total, but combined with the MacBook, the total becomes 65.76%. This being the case, it’s a wonder if developers with more robust game engines are going to even consider moving over to the Mac after all, as the only Mac models capable of truly handling any of today’s current top games is the Mac Pro, but that’s responsible for only 5.62% of the total.

If you’re interested in diving into even more in-depth Mac stats, don’t worry, I’ve barely touched them. To filter out the list to only see Mac stats, you can click the subtle drop-down underneath the graphs on the hardware survey page (linked to below).

On the PC side of things, Windows 7 has gained some serious momentum since I last checked, and has passed Windows XP as the most common OS used by gamers who use Steam. Combined, both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of XP totals 34.49%, but for Windows 7, again with both versions, the number totals an impressive 41.53%. Vista currently sits at 23.44%, although for some reason the 64-bit version saw a +0.96% increase month-to-month.

Dual-core CPU’s are still rather dominant compared to the rest, at 54.47%, but they are on a decline, with quad-cores seeing rapid growth to currently sit at 29.60%. Tri-core CPU’s sit at just above 1% while the lingering single-core processors continue to decline to currently hold 14.54% of the total number.

Resolutions-wise, 1280×1024 is still the most popular choice at 18.41%, with 1680×1050 falling just behind at 18.35%. The HD resolution of 1920×1080 sees some nice growth, though, currently with 12.21% share, and the common notebook resolution of 1440×900 falls just behind that with 10.36%.

If all these stats aren’t enough to satisfy you, just hit up the link below and click away.

Steam collects data about what kinds of computer hardware and software our customers are using. The survey data is incredibly helpful to us in that it ensures that we’re making good decisions about what kinds of technology investments to make and products to offer.