Steam Survey Oct 2026: RTX 3060 Back on Top, Linux 3.95%

By GameDrop Staff · Nov 02, 2026 · Hardware · 2 min read

Steam Hardware Survey October 2026 GPU chart headline image — Image: VideoCardz / Valve

Valve's October 2026 Steam Hardware Survey is out, and it undoes much of September's drama. The GeForce RTX 3060 is the most popular GPU on Steam again, 16GB of RAM is back on top, and Linux sits at 3.95%. Here is what changed and what it means if you are choosing PC parts.

RTX 3060: 3.62% (up from 3.54%), first place
RTX 5070: 3.56% (down from 5.86%)
16GB RAM: 41.42%; 32GB: 37.06%
Linux: 3.95%; Windows 93.70%; macOS 2.35%
Intel CPUs: 53.48% of Windows users

Which GPU is most popular on Steam in October 2026?

The RTX 3060 is, with 3.62% of systems in Steam's default combined-platform view. The RTX 5070 held the top spot for only one month and dropped 2.30 points to 3.56%. In the separate PC GPU table, VideoCardz notes both cards are listed at 3.78%, so the race is essentially a tie.

Why did RTX 50-series cards fall so much?

The RTX 5060 slipped from 4.20% to 2.97%, and the RTX 5060 Ti from 3.87% to 2.55%. Both are back near their August levels. VideoCardz suggests September's jump was shaped by survey sampling rather than real adoption alone. One clue: Simplified Chinese language use fell 9.41 points to 21.98%, and Chinese-language swings often follow holidays and skew the data.

GPU	September	October
RTX 3060	3.54%	3.62%
RTX 5070	5.86%	3.56%
RTX 5060	4.20%	2.97%
RTX 5060 Ti	3.87%	2.55%

How much RAM do Steam gamers have?

16GB reclaimed first place at 41.42%, up 3.60 points, while 32GB fell 5.16 points to 37.06% after briefly leading in September. With the ongoing DRAM and NAND shortage making upgrades costly, the mainstream stays at 16GB. See our budget gaming PC guide for India for how prices affect builds.

Is Linux about to hit 4% on Steam?

Linux is at 3.95%. Steam's page shows a 0.90-point rise over September's originally published 3.05%, but Valve later revised September to 3.90%, so the real gain is just 0.05 points. Linux has passed 4% before this year, so this is not a record. Top distros: CachyOS 0.65%, SteamOS Holo 0.55%, Arch 0.35%, another SteamOS entry 0.32%, Bazzite 0.27%.

What about CPUs?

Among Windows users, Intel holds 53.48%, up 0.89 points, according to Wccftech's reading of the survey, with AMD taking the rest of the gains reversed.

What should buyers take from this?

Steam's survey is a sample, so single-month swings are noisy. The steady message: older cards like the RTX 3060 still dominate, so game developers keep targeting 8 to 12GB VRAM and 16GB RAM. With GPU prices rising, see why GPUs are 35% pricier and check deals before buying.