Valve has published the April 2026 Steam Hardware Survey, and the big story this month is normalization. Last month’s data was a statistical mess, with Linux at an improbable 5.33%, the 16 GB RAM tier jumping wildly, and the RTX 5070 temporarily sitting at an anomalous position. April looks a lot more like what you’d expect from a stable month of organic hardware churn, which ironically makes it easier to spot what’s actually changing.
RTX 3060 Back in Its Natural Habitat
The RTX 3060 retakes the top GPU slot at 3.99%, which is exactly where it’s been for most of the past year. The February and March anomalies are clearly behind us. Rounding out the top five: the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU at 3.78%, the RTX 3050 at 3.04%, the RTX 4060 Ti at 2.45%, and the RTX 5070 at 2.86%. The overall picture is a Steam gaming population still dominated by Ampere mid-range hardware, with Ada Lovelace filling in the upper-mid tier and the RTX 50 series slowly accumulating share from the top down.
RTX 50 Series: Steady, Not Spectacular
The RTX 50 series as a whole is accruing share at a leisurely pace. The 5070 sits at 2.86%, the 5060 at 2.57%, the 5060 Ti at 1.81%, the 5070 Ti at 1.62%, the 5080 at 1.37%, and the 5090 at 0.41%. Two new entries worth noting: the RTX 5050 debuted at 0.16%, and the RTX 5050 Laptop GPU appeared at 0.24%, signaling that NVIDIA’s budget refresh is starting to filter into survey data. None of these numbers suggest a mass-market generational transition is underway. Pricing and availability continue to constrain adoption at the mainstream tier, and the Ampere installed base is just enormous.
AMD’s RDNA 4 Finally Shows a Pulse
The RX 9070 XT is still absent from the listed cards, but the RX 9070 appeared at 0.17% this month. That’s a first appearance in the survey and meaningful proof that RDNA 4 is actually reaching gamers, even if the numbers remain tiny. The generic “AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics” and “AMD Radeon Graphics” buckets continue to absorb a chunk of AMD discrete card share that should probably be attributed to specific models, but the trend is what it is: AMD’s discrete GPU presence on Steam remains historically weak relative to its actual sales numbers.
16 GB VRAM Keeps Climbing
The 16 GB VRAM tier reached 23.51%, up another 1.98 percentage points from March. It’s not yet at the top of the chart (8 GB still holds that at 26.76%), but the gap is closing quickly. This is the clearest quantitative signal in the survey that the RTX 50 series is having a real effect: 16 GB is now the standard configuration on NVIDIA’s mainstream lineup, and it’s showing up in aggregate stats. The 12 GB tier is gradually declining, which tracks as RTX 3060 units age and 50-series replacements accumulate.
RAM: 32 GB Claws Back Some Ground
Last month’s implosion of the 32 GB configuration, which dropped roughly 20 points in what was almost certainly a sampling artifact, is partially reversing. 32 GB sits at 37.55% in April, up 0.93 points from March. Meanwhile, 16 GB holds the top spot at 40.86%, down 0.11 points. The gap is narrowing from its March extreme. A new entry worth flagging: 28 GB appears on the chart at 0.55%, which suggests AMD Strix Halo-based laptops with their 28 GB unified memory configurations are accumulating enough of a Steam presence to register.
Linux Retreats from Its March Peak
Linux pulled back to 4.52% in April, down 0.81 points from March’s 5.33%, which we noted at the time was likely a sampling anomaly rather than a true breakthrough. The underlying trend is still real and still upward, driven by the Steam Deck installed base, but 5% was always going to need more than one month to stick. Arch Linux leads the distribution breakdown at 0.32%, followed by Linux Mint 22.3 at 0.27%.
Windows 11 Continues Its Slow Grind
Windows 11 reached 67.74%, up 0.89 points from March. Windows 10 held at 25.63% (+0.27%), which is somewhat surprising given Microsoft’s ongoing pressure campaign to get users off it. The doomsday clock for Windows 10 end-of-support in October 2025 has clearly not moved the needle as dramatically as some expected, at least among the Steam gaming population. Windows 7 64-bit is still at 0.07%, which at this point is basically archaeology.
CPU Manufacturer Share: AMD Crosses 45%
AMD’s CPU share hit 45.19% in April, continuing a months-long climb toward parity with Intel’s 54.81%. That’s a story that’s been playing out slowly for a couple of years now, with Ryzen’s competitiveness in both desktop and laptop markets gradually converting the Steam gaming population.
Display Resolutions: 1080p Holds, 1440p Climbs
1920×1080 remains the dominant primary display resolution at 52.21% (+0.28%). 2560×1440 is at 21.41% (+0.71%), continuing a multi-month upward trend as monitor prices for 1440p panels have come down substantially. 4K reached 5.09% (+0.30%), a slow but consistent climb. If the 1440p trend continues at its current pace, it may approach 25% by the end of the year.
VR: Meta’s Consolidation Continues
The Meta Quest 3 leads VR headset share at 28.58% (+0.92%), with the Quest 2 at 22.09% and the Quest 3S at 12.98%. Meta collectively accounts for the majority of the Steam VR user base. The Valve Index HMD slipped to 11.77% (-1.15%), its continued slow decline since the Index received no refresh. Total Steam users with a VR headset sits at around 1%, consistent with prior months.
Overall, April’s survey reads like a return to baseline after a chaotic March. Trends include: RTX 50 series adoption is real but slow, 16 GB VRAM is becoming the new normal, the Ampere installed base is massive and sticky, and AMD is gaining ground in CPUs while remaining a minority player in discrete GPUs on Steam. The 28 GB memory tier appearing for the first time is a small but interesting signal of where laptop hardware is heading.