Steam gaining traction on low-end PCs

Last month’s Steam hardware survey shows that more and more people are using Valve’s digital retail platform on less powerful PCs.

The report shows that the number of Steam users relying on Intel’s integrated graphics has risen from 4 per cent to 11 per cent, while the use of dual core processores has risen from 48 per cent to 50 per cent.

DirectX 9 level GPUs now account for nearly 20 per cent of PCs with Steam. The most popular resolution is 1920 x 1080, used by 25 per cent of Steam customers.

Technobabble aside, the survey proves that the share of Steam use that high-end PCs account for has declined.

PCGamesN suggests this is because more people are using Steam on their laptops. It may also indicate a rise in popularity for less demanding games such as Minecraft, Plants Vs Zombies and strategy titles like Civilzation and Total War.

Steam’s growth outside of larger, tech-savvy Western markets may also be a contributing factor.