Valve’s October 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey put 16 GB of system RAM at 41.42% of responses, ahead of the exact 32 GB category at 37.06%. The “Above 1 TB” total-storage category stood at 48.62%. These are category shares in Valve’s combined Windows, macOS and Linux table, with month-over-month changes measured in percentage points. (Valve’s survey)
16 GB led the RAM categories
The 16 GB category gained 3.60 percentage points from the previous month, while the exact 32 GB category fell 5.16 points. A percentage point is the difference between two percentage shares: the 32 GB category’s October share of 37.06%, for example, was 5.16 points below its previous share of 42.22%.
| Category | October 2026 share | Change from previous month |
| System RAM: 16 GB | 41.42% | +3.60 percentage points |
| System RAM: 32 GB | 37.06% | −5.16 percentage points |
| System RAM: 8 GB | 7.52% | +1.05 percentage points |
| Total storage: 750–999 GB | 25.07% | +2.36 percentage points |
| Total storage: 250–499 GB | 18.16% | +2.30 percentage points |
| Total storage: Above 1 TB | 48.62% | −4.68 percentage points |
The figures are shares of responses in Valve’s monthly, optional and anonymous survey. They describe the distribution of reported categories among participating Steam customers, rather than a count of PCs or a record of individual machines changing configuration.
Storage shares moved across several categories
The “Above 1 TB” category lost 4.68 percentage points. The 750–999 GB and 250–499 GB categories rose by 2.36 and 2.30 points, respectively. Together, these values describe movement among survey categories; they do not track the storage history of individual users’ computers.
Survey language shares changed, too
In October, English accounted for 39.04% of survey responses, up 4.84 percentage points. Simplified Chinese accounted for 21.98%, down 9.41 points. Those figures classify responses by survey language, not by participants’ locations.
Valve’s October table records the category shares and their changes. It does not identify a cause for the RAM, storage or language shifts.
