Valve has published its October 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey results, and many of last month’s most dramatic changes have already begun to reverse. Several categories that saw unusually large shifts in September, including memory capacity, GPU market share and language distribution, have largely moved back towards their previous positions.
September’s survey saw 32GB of RAM briefly overtake 16GB as the most common memory configuration among Steam users, while the GeForce RTX 5070 surged ahead of the RTX 3060. October’s results tell a different story. 16GB has regained the top spot at 41.42%, up 3.60 percentage points month-on-month, while 32GB fell 5.16 points to 37.06%. The RTX 3060 has also reclaimed its position as Steam’s most popular graphics card at 3.62%, narrowly ahead of the RTX 5070 at 3.56%.
The most likely explanation appears to be a change in survey demographics rather than a sudden shift in purchasing behaviour. Simplified Chinese users accounted for 21.98% of survey responses in October, down 9.41 percentage points from the previous month. Meanwhile, English-language users increased by 4.84 percentage points to 39.04%, helping to explain why several hardware categories appear to have swung back towards earlier trends.
Elsewhere, Windows 11 continued its steady rise, gaining 1.17 percentage points to reach 72.51% of surveyed systems. Intel also extended its lead among Windows CPU users, increasing its share to 53.48%, while AMD slipped to 46.51%. The survey also showed Linux growing to 3.95% of systems, although Windows remains overwhelmingly dominant among Steam users.
KitGuru says: September’s Steam Survey always looked a little unusual. Do October’s results paint a more accurate picture of the current PC gaming market?
