On Wednesday, the day finally came: Valve officially ended support for Steam on Windows 7 and Windows 8. With the latest update to the Steam launcher, users on these older operating systems can no longer access the digital store or play its games. Valve now recommends users upgrade to Windows 10 or Windows 11.
For those not using a Microsoft system, there are still alternatives. Gamers can continue accessing Steam on Linux or macOS. In an announcement on the platform, Valve confirmed that this decision is final, and users must update their operating systems to keep enjoying Steam’s services.
“This version of the Steam client will no longer run on Windows 7 or Windows 8. Users with these versions of the operating system will no longer be able to automatically update to this latest version.”
The last survey carried out on Steam in October 2024 showed that there were still 0.28% of active users with Windows 7. The percentage may seem small, but this represents around 350 thousand people.
- Steam Users Can No Longer Share Accounts
- Steam Deck OLED gets a special version with a new color
- Games You Buy on Steam are not yours, warns Valve
- Will Steam Deck run Windows 11?
Goodbye, Windows 7 and Windows 8
It’s worth noting that Valve had already announced earlier that it would be discontinuing support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 this year.
This move was anticipated, especially considering that Windows 7 was released in 2009, and Microsoft ended its official support in January 2020. Similarly, Microsoft discontinued Windows 8 support in January 2023.
As for supported systems, the current version of Steam will continue to function on Windows 10, Windows 11, macOS 10.15 Catalina, or later, as well as Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or newer versions.
