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Comment by nomel | Hacker News Reader

2026 Steam hardware survey [1]:

    Windows: 94.10%
    Linux: 3.68%
    macOS: 2.21%

[1] Click the "OS Version" row to expand the table, https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...

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Something of a self-reinforcing statistic. Steam is rarely installed on Mac because there’s hardly any point doing so.

Proud 2.2%er

But I also have had it installed via Crossover at some points to check out a Windows-only game.

Which I just realize also skews the statistic because Crossover basically creates a Windows VM.

Macs have a single digit market share globally, so even if people started installing games on them the needle wouldn't move much.

Mac market share is closer to 20% when you exclude machines installed in offices and enterprises. Some estimates put the number as high as 30% in North America.

The fact that the Steam number is as high as it is, despite the extreme lack of compatible content, is noteworthy.

Steam needs a statistic for Wine/crossover. I play tons of games on my mac via steam through crossover. It's crazy that multiple layers of translation work so well.

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