Explain why gamers adopt Windows 11 more slowly than Windows 10

There was a time shortly after the release of Windows 10 when Microsoft did it release specific adoption numbers Often, cheering How quickly the new free update was adopted at the time by Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. The company didn’t repeat this strategy for Windows 11, which made us rely on third-party data to see how quickly people picked up a new operating system.

We pulled the equivalent of a few months from Scan hardware and software Steam The data is compared to the months immediately following the release of Windows 10. This data is incomplete and a bit noisy – Steam users need to volunteer to send data – but the variation in dependency is large enough that we can draw at least some conclusions.

Windows 11 was released to the public in October 2021, and Windows 10 was released in July 2015. In both cases, we used the Internet Wayback Machine to look up seven months of data, including the month immediately before each operating system was released. We plotted usage numbers for 64-bit versions of operating systems (32-bit versions, along with versions such as Vista and XP, grouped into “others”), and collected the numbers for Windows 8.1 and 8.0.

The upshot is, Steam users are migrating to Windows 11 half as fast as they did to Windows 10. Six months after its release, Windows 10 worked on 31 percent of all Steam computers — nearly one in three. As of March 2022, Windows 11 runs on less than 17 percent of Steam computers – about one in six. Three-quarters of Steam PCs in 2022 were still running Windows 10.

These results are easy to interpret as an indictment of Windows 11, which has generated some controversy due to its relatively strict (and often poorly explained) Security-oriented system requirements. at least Some From this slow adoption is caused by these system requirements – it is likely that many of the computers studied by Steam I can not Installing Windows 11. It may be because users have an outdated, unsupported CPU or one or more required security features are disabled; The Secure Boot and firmware TPM have often been turned off by default on new motherboards for many years.

But there are other compelling explanations. Windows 11 adoption seems slow compared to Windows 10, but Windows 10 adoption has also been exceptionally good.

Windows 8 and 8.1 weren’t liked, to put it mildly, and Windows 10 was framed as a response (and a fix) to most Windows 8 user interface changes. People still using Windows 7 were missing out on some of the great quality of life additions and improvements that Windows 8 added.

You can see this pent-up demand in the jump between July 2015 and September 2015. In the first two months of Windows 10 availability, Windows 8 caused users to bleed, dropping from about 35 percent of usage to 19 percent. Almost all of these users—and a smaller but noticeable group of Windows 7 users—were migrating to Windows 10. Windows 11 also got a decent early bump in November 2021, but its bimonthly gains were much lower.

In contrast, Windows 11 was announced with little to no running, and was replacing what users were told was the “last version of Windows”. Where Windows 10 replaced an unpopular new operating system and a beloved but outdated operating system, Windows 11 replaced a modern operating system that no one really complained about (Windows 10 runs on more than 90 percent of everyone Steam PCs in September 2021 – even Windows 7 in its prime couldn’t boast of that kind of adoption).

It is also worth noting that Microsoft did notR Try to recreate that initial rush of adoption for Windows 11. Next some troubles After early Windows 10 service updates, Microsoft began rolling out updates more systematically, starting with small numbers of PCs and then gradually expanding availability as problems were discovered and resolved. Windows 11 only enteredFinal stage of availabilityIn February, ensuring that anyone with a compatible PC could get Windows 11 through Windows Update if they so desired.