It was only a matter of time before this happened, and the time has come: PC players with older versions of Windows are deprived of Steam support. This was announced by Valve via its support website, where it was stated that Steam has stopped supporting Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 since January 1. For some players, a small bar actually isn’t that important considering the data on the table. Let’s go by parts.

What exactly does this mean?. Valve’s decision to stop supporting these versions means that the Steam client will no longer receive any updates, including security updates. Likewise, the Steam support team will not be able to provide assistance in case of technical problems and frankly “Steam will not be able to guarantee the continued operation of Steam on unsupported operating system versions.”

In fact, according to Valve, “We expect the Steam client and games on these older operating systems to continue working without updates for some time after January 1, 2024, but we cannot guarantee continued functionality after that date.”

Why this move?. The truth is it’s pretty simple. Steam’s main features are based on a built-in version of Google Chrome, which no longer works on older versions of Windows. Additionally, Valve points out that future versions of Steam “will require Windows features and security updates that are only available in Windows 10 and later.” Software without support or security patches is considered unsafe and in this sense…

These versions of Windows are out of date. Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 have been out of support since January 10, 2023. Actually since before, but some users have expanded support for security updates (or third-party patches). Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. These are outdated operating systems and therefore may not be secure. It makes perfect sense for Steam to abandon these versions once and for all.

Scope of the measure. According to the latest Steam hardware survey (December 2023 at the time of writing), 0.68% of computers have Windows 7 and 0.15% have Windows 8.1. So this measure will not affect even one in a hundred players. The most popular version on Steam is Windows 10 with a share of 53.45%, followed by Windows 11 with a share of 41.95%.

compare data. This data comes from Steam, so it’s no surprise that users are more up to date. But outside of the gaming world, things are quite different. According to StatCounter, Windows 10’s share is 67.46%. Windows 11 ranks second with 26.52%. In third place is Windows 7 with 3.34%, and in fourth place is Windows 8.1 with 1.66%. For those wondering, 0.64% of computers still run Windows XP.

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