Valve has introduced that its Steam digital distribution service will drop assist for 32-bit variations of Home windows beginning January 2026.
Two years earlier, in January 2024, Steam additionally dropped assist for Home windows 7, Home windows 8, and Home windows 8.1, recommending customers to improve to a more moderen working system.
Though Steam will quickly cease working on Home windows 10 32-bit (the one 32-bit Home windows model nonetheless supported), it can proceed to be supported on Home windows 10 64-bit, and 32-bit video games will stay playable.
Whereas the variety of affected customers is probably going minimal, provided that the most recent Steam {hardware} survey signifies that solely 0.01% of players are utilizing a 32-bit working system, Valve has nonetheless urged players to replace to a 64-bit model of Home windows as quickly as doable to keep up compatibility and proceed receiving updates.
“As of January 1, 2026, Steam will cease supporting methods working 32-bit variations of Home windows. Home windows 10 32-bit is the one 32-bit model that’s at present supported by Steam and is barely in use on 0.01% of methods reported by the Steam {Hardware} Survey,” the corporate mentioned this week. “Current Steam Consumer installations will proceed to operate for the close to time period on Home windows 10 32-bit however will now not obtain updates of any sort together with safety updates.”
“This transformation is required as core options in Steam depend on system drivers and different libraries that aren’t supported on 32-bit variations of Home windows. Future variations of Steam will run on 64-bit variations of Home windows solely. We strongly encourage all 32-bit Home windows customers to replace sooner relatively than later,” it added.
Microsoft additionally reminded clients earlier this month that every one variations of Home windows 10 will even attain their finish of assist in 30 days, on October 14, and suggested them to improve eligible methods to Home windows 11 or migrate to the cloud with Home windows 365.
Those that cannot improve resulting from incompatible {hardware} can delay switching to Home windows 11 by enrolling within the Prolonged Safety Updates (ESU) program, which prices $30 for house customers and $61 per machine per yr for enterprise clients. This ESU program can be out there at no cost to house customers who need to allow Home windows Backup to sync their knowledge to the cloud or use Microsoft Rewards factors to enroll.
In line with Steam’s August 2025 {hardware} & software program survey, 60.39% of players use Home windows 11, whereas solely 35.08% use Home windows 10.
46% of environments had passwords cracked, almost doubling from 25% final yr.
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