
Valve has released the Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for June 2026, showing how Steam users have evolved over the last month using randomised sampling. While last month saw encouraging results for AMD against Nvidia, this month's outlook was rather more flat, with more movement in terms of storage space, OS, resolution and language. Here are the morsels we picked out.
First, the effects of the current RAM and storage crisis were easy to see, with total number of users with more than 1TB of storage space dropping below the 50 percent mark following a 0.7 percent drop, while the 750GB to 999GB category (which includes 1TB drives) grew by roughly the same amount to reach a quarter of all users. Similarly, a 16GB RAM count is re-establishing itself as the new normal, with 42 percent of users after a half percentage point rise. 32GB is the second-most common allocation, at 37 percent, while 64GB is in a distant third at four percent; both saw fractional falls.
Components less affected by the current pricing surge saw more normal growth, eg six-core CPUs (28 percent) losing 0.4 percentage points in favour of matching rises from 14-core (five percent) and 16-core (six percent) CPUs. Similarly, we saw ancient 2GB, 3GB and 4GB VRAM GPUs (12 percent combined) lost around half a percentage point in favour of 6GB (seven percent), 12GB (13 percent) and 16GB (25 percent) GPUs.
In the OS space, Windows 11 has now reached more than 70 percent of users after a 0.7 percent rise, with corresponding 0.4 percent losses from Windows 10 (24 percent of users) and 0.3 percent losses from Linux (four percent of users). It'll be interesting to see if the number of SteamOS users rises with the release of the Steam Machine.
Monitor evolution is also continuing on pace, with pretty much straight replacement of the classic 1080p standard (51 percent) with 2560x1440 and 2560x1600 (27 percent combined) by just under one percentage point.
Finally, the number of simplified Chinese language users grew by 2.3 percent, with smaller 0.1 percent rises for traditional Chinese and Korean; English saw the greatest reduction at 1.3 percent but Spanish and Russian language users also dropped by 0.3 percent. At 24 percent, simplified Chinese is the second most popular language after English at 38 percent.
What do you make of the survey results? Are there any interesting stories in the data that we missed? Let me know in the comments below.
[source store.steampowered.com]





Comments 11
I just bought my first non-nvidia graphics card since the ATI 9700 Pro during Prime Days. It is a Sapphire Nitro+ 9070XT for 609€ from Amazon Warehouse in "Mint - As New" condition.
Meanwhile I am dropping in the "SSD storage" category because I am a recovering SSD horder who is using the current NAND crisis to sell all his old SSDs. I felt really bad about all the hundreds and hundreds of Euros I have spent on SSD deals over the years and this current crisis bailed me out.
I just bought my first Ultrawide (3440 x 1440 - 3.09% of single monitors) having had 2 x 1080p (48.48% of multi-monitors) for a decade and a half. Was surprised by the proportion of single monitors at 2560 x 1600 (5.64%) as I didn't really see many of those while shopping around.
Also what's with around 4.5% of multi-monitor users having odd heights like 3840 x 1081 - 3840 x 1086... where are these extra 1-6 pixels coming from. Software error? What am I missing?
I am surprised that 4k sits below 5%, I did not expect it to be that low, although still not in double digit percentages. I wonder if that will change with the Machine and various similar SFF SteamOS PCs launching, which are are more likely to be connected to TVs and the majority of TVs sold now seem to be 4K.
3840 x 2160 4.95%
@themightyant How have you found the switch to ultrawide? I keep thinking about getting a 5k/2k monitor as there finally is an OLED version, but still not really sure how much it adds to gaming?
@MattGPT Ask me in a few weeks / months, I haven't set it up yet (Also building a new PC, but currently busy with projects) and will take a while to become accustomed to it. Try out Fancy Zones and other ways of multi-tasking with windows on one monitor not two.
To be clear this really isn't for gaming, it's for work. I specifically bought a monitor for productivity not gaming. It's not got a particularly fast response time (only up to 1ms), it's not OLED (because I don't want burn in from the same programs / UI panels open all day) plus I don't like how OLED renders text at all... though I hear the very latest most expensive panels potentially solve this, I didn't want to pay for that when I will barely use the other premium features.
I might still game on it a little - my one real amendment to spec for gaming was an RTX 5070 - and it should be a step up from my 1080p panels which were also for work not gaming spec. I am eager to try Cyperpunk with RT at least and maybe a few Game pass titles with great ultrawide support and lush visuals like Avatar. I also wouldn't mind playing 16:9 with bars.
But in reality after sitting in this chair all day for work I do most of my gaming on console in front of my tv. I prefer the delineation of work and pleasure. I was excited by the Steam Machine - before low specs and price - and now am waiting to see if Helix might fill that void for convenient PC under TV.
@MattGPT I still think 4K (native) is just too computationally expensive for most and doesn't represent a large enough jump from 1440p. You have to have a larger monitor to really notice it, and most don't have that.
@themightyant I am lucky enough to have 4K OLED monitors at home, in the office and on my laptop, I use Office a reasonable amount, at work Outlook is pretty much always open on my laptop (Asus ProArt P16) and it has zero burn in after more than a year. At home I have an MSI gaming OLED, and at work the monitor connected to my laptop is a 32" ProArt OLED. Even though the work ones are in use a lot with Illustrator open for probably 3-5 hours a day and I have never hidden the taskbar that has zero burn in either. I think overall current OLEDs seem to be much more resistant to burn in than the very early models.
Have you thought about dual booting your PC and using Bazzite, or just Big Picture mode? At home I have also streamed my PC to my TV, minor delay but with a controller it does not feel noticeable and I do not want to use a keyboard and mouse on the sofa anyway (although I have a wireless one for when something Windows based decides to be difficult), part of why I really want a Steam Controller, the others just never seem to get things quite right.
With regard to 1440p at monitor distance I really notice it, I have 32" and 34" and at that size I can see the pixels on a 1440p monitor, but not on a 4k so for me that was the reason I upgraded. I also have become a bit of an OLED diehard for everything now.
@MattGPT OLED has some pros but also some cons, there isn't a "perfect" display technology, they all have some concessions. It sounds like you made the right choices for your needs.
For me I had other needs and made different choices. I have an OLED as my laptop external monitor and don't like the text rendering at all, it's a fundamental issue with how the pixels are shown. John was talking about this in a recent DF how they have apparently, at least partially, solved this in this years models but for now that's top dollar screens only. If you don't notice this then it's not an issue for you.
I also work in a bright room and have found my OLED is a bit washed out, I prefer the brighter LCD in my setting.
Equally with burn in, I've had it on all the OLED's I've had before, both an LG TV and my laptop monitor, so I just don't trust the tech whatever others say about their personal experiences. Great for you if you haven't had it but general advice from sites like Rtings and other leaders is OLED is still not the best solution if productivity is your main driver, as it is for me, so I am happy with my choice.
Despite all that I did still considerer OLED long and hard, because I really like many of the benefits. In fact choosing a monitor was by FAR the hardest choice I found speccing my build. I even considered possibly having 2 different 1440p screens one OLED, one LCD - one for gaming spec, one for productivity and better colour accuracy - but ultimately decided on one 1440p ultrawide - again a compromise. But I know I won't really be gaming on it much.
Perhaps I won't like it, I can still return it if so and reconsider OLED... but I haven't got there yet.
@MattGPT I used to dual boot my PC but as I said I prefer the delineation of work and play. It's a mental thing more than anything.
I also used to have both a Steam Link, OG Steam Controller and a super-long cumbersome HDMI cable that went between rooms for if I wanted to play PC on the TV... but ultimately I just found I didn't use it. Despite gaming hard on PC in my 20s and 30s I've become accustomed to the "it just works" convenience of console and prefer to play there than endlessly tinker. Again a personal choice, not saying one is superior, it's just where I naturally gravitated. I still do a bit of PC gaming but for now will primarily stick to my consoles and leave the PC for work.
@matmartin That's the flip-side to this crisis. Selling prices are also high.
E.g. I can sell my Steam Deck for more than I bought it. Selling PS5 Pro (+ maybe the 1TB SSD) will fund a large part of the PS6 - assuming the PS6 allows me to play my PS4 & PS5 discs somehow...
Obviously would rather lower prices but it is a small silver lining.
@themightyant I am probably lucky in that respect, my PC at home is in an area with little natural light if I shut the blinds and in the office I removed the lights above my desk and so do not need the office that bright, the other end of the office is a huge window but that is far enough away to not cause issues.
I totally get the separation of work and pleasure, I sometimes find the same, but more even that I do not want to look at a screen at all sometimes after a lot of intense work, at those points I end up going back to reading books to relax as at that point my brain seems to associate lit screen with work, regardless of it being a monitor, TV or phone.
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