Steam Officially Ends Windows 32-Bit Support, Aligning with Industry Shift Valve has announced it will officially drop support for the 32-bit version of Windows at the end of this year. The only currently supported 32-bit OS, Windows 10 32-bit, is used by a minuscule fraction of the Steam user base. According to data from the Steam Hardware Survey, a mere 0.01 percent of systems run this version of Windows. With a daily user count of over 36 million, this change is projected to impact only a few thousand users globally. This move does not mean the Steam client will suddenly stop working on these older systems come January 1st. However, it does signify that users on Windows 10 32-bit will no longer receive any client updates, new features, or technical support from Valve. This decision aligns with broader industry trends, including Microsoft’s own plan to sunset all versions of Windows 10, ending security updates for the operating system on October 14th of this year. For the foreseeable future, Valve will continue to support Steam on the 64-bit version of Windows 10. The writing has been on the wall for 32-bit operating systems for some time. Microsoft’s current flagship OS, Windows 11, does not even offer a 32-bit version, making it the first Windows release since Windows NT in 1993 to abandon the architecture. In its announcement, Valve explained the technical reasoning behind the decision, stating that core features within Steam are dependent on an ecosystem of modern system drivers and libraries that are no longer supported on 32-bit versions of Windows. This shift allows Valve’s development team to focus its resources entirely on modern 64-bit environments, which represent the overwhelming majority of the PC gaming market. This phase-out of legacy support is a common theme in the technology and crypto sectors, where development resources are often prioritized for the most widely adopted and secure platforms. For the vast majority of gamers, this change will be unnoticeable, but it marks another step in the inevitable transition away from 32-bit computing. The move allows Valve to streamline its development process, potentially freeing up engineering bandwidth for future projects and platform improvements.
