Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, meaning Microsoft stopped releasing updates for it. Microsoft ending support usually means that, before long, various apps and services will stop supporting the operating system in question as well. So when will Steam stop working on Windows 10?
As long as Chromium supports Windows 10, Steam should too
Steam ended support for Windows 7 on January 1, 2024. But Valve didn’t decide to stop supporting Windows 7 and 8 on a whim; they had a good reason for doing so.
The Steam desktop client is based on the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF), the foundation for Chromium and web browsers based on it. Chromium, an open-source web browser project run by Google, is the basis of many popular browsers, including Brave, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, and Opera GX, also known as the “gaming browser”. You can even use Chromium as a standalone browser if you want.
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Anyway, when Chromium dropped support for Windows 7 and Windows 8 in early February 2023, Valve had no other choice but to end support for these operating systems as well. While the company could’ve kept some components of the Steam desktop client up to date on Windows 7 and 8, they couldn’t do anything about keeping its foundation—the Chromium Embedded Framework—updated.
Ultimately, this would’ve made Steam vulnerable to malware and other attacks, with Valve being helpless to stop them. So, instead of making the Steam desktop client vulnerable to all kinds of exploits without a way to stop them, the company decided to end Windows 7 and 8 support instead.
Another reason Valve stopped supporting Windows 7 and 8 was that future versions of Steam would require features and security updates only found on Windows 10 and 11, but the main reason stemmed from Chromium ending support for these platforms.
Since Steam depends on Chromium updates to function properly, as long as Google keeps Chromium updated on Windows 10, gamers running Windows 10 will be able to use Steam on their gaming PCs.
I reckon Windows 10 will remain relatively popular for some time
Google likely dropped support for Windows 7 because the operating system was becoming less popular. Despite Microsoft ending support for Windows 7 in January 2020, Windows 7 held more than 18% of the Windows market share in late 2020. That’s a lot of PCs Google Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers could run on at the time.
But just two months before Google announced it would stop supporting Chromium on Windows 7, the OS dropped below 10% market share for the first time ever, holding just 9.62% of the Windows market in October 2022.
Credit: Microsoft
Another indication that Windows 7’s popularity was the reason for extended Chromium support was the fact Chromium dropped Windows 8.1 in January 2023, the moment Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows 8.1. This likely happened because Windows 8.1 held only about 2.3% of the total Windows market at the time, too little for Google to justify extended support for it like it did with Windows 7.
If you ask me, Windows 10 will stay quite popular for a good while. At the moment of writing this, Windows 10 holds more than 33% of the Windows market share. While that number will start dropping faster now that the official support has ended, I reckon Windows 10 won’t drop to around a 10% market share—and thus signal to Google that it’s time for Chromium to stop supporting it—for the foreseeable future.
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Ironically, the main reason why I believe that is Windows 11. Just as Windows 7 users refused to switch to Windows 10 for a long time because they considered it inferior to Windows 7, the same thing happens now with Windows 11. Many people view Windows 11 as the inferior OS, especially now that Microsoft is trying to shove (mostly) unnecessary AI features into every PC running Windows 11.
Add the fact that a ton of Windows 10 PCs aren’t compatible with Windows 11—although you can install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware with a few tweaks—and you’ve got a perfect storm that will keep Windows 10 fairly popular in years to come.
I don’t think Steam Will drop Windows 10 support before 2030
My prediction is that Steam will continue supporting Windows 10 until at least 2030. Here’s why.
Firstly, ten years after its release, Windows 7 held about 28% of the Windows market, while Windows 10 managed to hold almost 43% a decade after it came out.
Credit: Lucas Gouveia / How-To Geek | Capix Denan / Shutterstock
Then we’ve got the issue of the languid Windows 11 adoption rate and its strict hardware requirements, preventing many from upgrading to Windows 11. Add Microsoft’s AI obsession and controversial Windows 11 features, such as Recall, which will further hamper the already sluggish Windows 11 adoption, and I think that Windows 10 won’t drop below the magical 10% market share for at least the next half a decade.
After all, Windows 7 dropped below a 10% market share 13 years after its release, so it’s likely that Windows 10 will still hold at least 10% of the Windows market 15 years after its debut.
It’s still a very usable OS and supports all the latest features sans some AI ones, which is a boon to many people. It also supports all the latest gaming features, including the DirectX 12 suite and stuff like DirectStorage (limited support, but still there).
Also, Microsoft offers the ESU (Extended Security Updates) program for Windows 10, which will last until October 2026. This means Chromium will only need to support Windows 10 for three years after Microsoft shuts down extended support for Valve to keep supporting Windows 10 until 2030, since Steam did support Windows 7 for about a year after Chromium dropped the OS.
So yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say your gaming PC will continue getting Steam updates at least until the end of this decade.
You’ll probably be able to use Steam on Windows 10 even after support ends
Now, the lack of official support doesn’t mean Steam will flat-out stop working the moment Valve pulls the plug on Windows 10. For instance, Steam worked fine on Windows 7 in early October 2024, more than 10 months after Valve ended support. The Steam update that locked Windows 7 users out of Steam’s online functionality shipped in late November 2024.
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That said, you can install and run Steam on Windows 7 even today with a couple of tweaks, even run some new games, as long as they don’t require DirectX 12.
In other words, once Google and then Valve decide it’s time to sunset Chromium and Steam on Windows 10, you’ll most likely be able to continue using Steam and playing (some) new games on your Windows 10 machine for a while after. No one knows for how long, but at least a year after the end of the official support seems likely.
My final prediction is that Steam will continue releasing updates for Windows 10 for about five more years, give or take a year. The good news is that, once the official support drops, you’ll probably be able to make Steam work on Windows 10 with tweaks for at least a few more years.
So, to finally answer the question, there’s a good chance Steam won’t stop working on Windows 10 until about 2032 or 2033. All I need now is a time machine to jump to 2033 for a minute and see how right (or wrong) I was.
