Steam to Drop Support for Windows 7, Windows 8 Next Year
Still using Windows 7 to play PC games? We have bad news: Valve’s Steam platform is dropping support for the operating system next year.
Valve announced the change in a help document(Opens in a new window), which says Steam is also dropping support for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. on Jan. 1, 2024.
“After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows,” the company says. “In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.”
Steam remained compatible with the aging OSes even after Microsoft officially ended support for Windows 7 in 2020 and Windows 8.1 in January. Now Valve says it has no choice but to drop that support, citing requirements from Google’s Chrome browser technology and Microsoft’s newer Windows 10 and Windows 11 ecosystems.
“The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows,” Valve explains. “In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”
However, the loss of Windows 7 support for Steam will only affect a small percentage of PC gamers on the platform. According to Steam’s own data, less than 2% of its user base relies on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The vast majority of players, at 62%, run Windows 10, while another 32% have upgraded to Windows 11.
Those still on Windows 7 can consider downloading Valve’s Linux-based Steam OS(Opens in a new window) to work around the looming end of support. Steam OS is the same operating system on Valve’s handheld Steam Deck, and it uses Valve’s “Proton compatibility layer” to run Windows
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