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Update: Multiple readers have written to suggest this could exist a surge related to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds opening in China. If so, it would be an extraordinary event — I can't recall a single time when 1 title so overwhelmingly tilted Steam results in a given direction. But as multiple readers have observed, PUBG is now pulling in 2x to equally much as 5x more than players than the current 2nd-place game, depending on when yous check the data.

If this hypothesis is accurate, Steam'southward electric current data set cannot be reconciled with Steam'southward previous data set. The figures reported for dramatically decreased marketplace share for AMD, as well every bit the surge in Windows seven, are non inaccurate relative to the number of systems running Steam. But they cannot be compared with the previous survey results and do not correspond a falloff of AMD sales, Windows 10 marketplace share, VR headset sales, or a bounding main change in quad-core CPU shipments.

Original Story Below:

For years, Valve has consistently published a monthly update on which systems and components its users own. It's never been a perfect metric. It only captures computers that log into the service over a menses of time, it isn't ever updated promptly when AMD or Nvidia launch new GPUs, and it doesn't always detect GPUs correctly. It'south besides non unusual to see Steam reporting a relatively loftier percentage of "Other" GPUs. Despite these issues, it remains the best publicly bachelor metric for what gamers and enthusiasts are buying–or at least, it was.

Over the final 4-six weeks, Steam's reported metrics for nigh every major component classification take radically changed. You can see the electric current report for October here, only we've graphed the changes out to make them easier to parse. The slideshow below steps through four major areas where Steam's rankings accept radically changed and presents historic information to back upward that argument.

We've separate our VR market share out from the other slideshow considering we need to talk about this one a bit more. We've been post-obit the VR market place growth through Steam for over a yr. In the past two months, Steam has completely reversed itself on VR usage and in ways that make no sense.

VR-Market-Share

This graph shows data presented by hundredths of percent, meaning the "1" at the top of the y-axis should be considered 1%. For a year, Steam appeared to motility more-or-less equally ane would expect, with VR adoption jumping sharply, holding adequately steady for much of 2017, just with Oculus' marketplace share rising again over the summer, cheers to an excellent auction. Now, according to Valve, VR usage has plunged on both platforms, despite the fact that both ran massive summer sales to drive product into client hands.

Why We Call up The SHS is Cleaved

There are 3 possibilities in play here. I, the SHS is terribly cleaved. Two, the SHS was terribly broken and has just been corrected. 3, the SHS's information processing and aggregation are being processed by a mentally deficient giraffe on an old VAX terminal. Nosotros're leaning towards #ane and/or #three.

These new results ask u.s.a. to throw out everything else nosotros know nigh the PC market place. OEMs have not sold hundreds of millions of systems over and to a higher place quarterly projections to transform the market and then apace. The bulk of Intel laptops on the market are still dual-core + Hyper-Threading; the eighth generation family has launched and is definitely in-market, but customers would have to replacing hardware at a ferocious footstep to evidence such dramatic changes so quickly — and nada nosotros've heard from any of the analysts that rails this for a living evidence whatsoever such changes.

It's possible that these changes are the results of a mammoth correction in the previous data set up, simply this only raises more than questions: Why was the previous information set so cataclysmically wrong? What did Valve change that of a sudden and properly corrected for huge swings in company market share? How did Valve miss Windows x adoption rates by a factor of ii? Or ovestimate AMD'due south market share in both CPUs and GPUs by the same gene? Information technology's not like finding out which CPU a person has is some kind of arcane art, and AMD's share of the enthusiast market has bounced around the 20% marking for years.

GTX-Crazy-Ti

Click to enlarge.

Does anyone believe that the market for GTX 750 Ti and GTX 960 cards literally simply doubled last month? No? Then why does Steam remember it did?

Valve needs to explain this state of affairs. If it doesn't, we won't be referring to the SHS for anything any longer. It was always an imperfect data ready, but now information technology'south downright worthless.

Now read: The Best Complimentary PC Games