Steam to end Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1 support as of January 1, 2024

The Steam gaming platform will end support for Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 as January 1, 2024 and will work only on computers running on Windows 10 and 11, Valve announced on the Steam website.

According to developers, Steam's newest features are based on Google Chrome’s built-in version, which no longer works on older versions of Windows. In addition, Steam provides features and security updates that are only available on Windows 10 and higher.

Ending support for older operating systems, however, will affect only two percent of Steam players. According to Steam’s statistics, only about 1.5 percent of gamers on this platform today use Windows 7, and only about 0.36 percent use Windows 8.1.

The leading operating system is Windows 10; it's used by almost 65 percent of Steam players. Windows 11 accounts for roughly 33 percent.

Microsoft ended extended support for the Windows 7 operating system on January 14, 2020. Computers running this version of the system continue to work, but no longer receive security updates, making them more vulnerable to attacks.

On January 10 of this year, Microsoft ended support also for Windows 8.1 and recommended that all users upgrade to Windows 11.