RTX 3060 and 16GB RAM Are Back on Top in Steam's October 2026 Survey

Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3060 has reclaimed its position as the most popular graphics card on Steam, overtaking the RTX 5070 in October 2026. Meanwhile, Linux has reached a 3.95% share, and 16GB RAM is once again the most common memory configuration among Steam users.

RTX 3060 overtakes RTX 5070 as Steam’s most popular GPU

According to Steam’s October 2026 Hardware Survey, the RTX 3060 increased its share from 3.54% in September to 3.62% in October.

The RTX 5070, which topped the rankings in September, dropped from 5.86% to 3.56%, losing 2.30 percentage points in just one month.

Other Nvidia Blackwell GPUs also experienced declines. The RTX 5060 fell from 4.20% to 2.97%, while the RTX 5060 Ti dropped from 3.87% to 2.55%.

However, Steam’s separate PC GPU table shows the RTX 3060 and RTX 5070 tied at 3.78%.

These changes follow September’s Steam Hardware Survey, when the RTX 5070 became the platform’s most popular graphics card.

Linux approaches 4% while Windows maintains its lead

Linux accounted for 3.95% of Steam users in October, compared with 93.70% for Windows and 2.35% for macOS.

At first glance, Linux appears to have gained 0.90 percentage points from September’s originally published 3.05%.

However, Valve subsequently revised September’s figure to 3.90%, meaning Linux actually gained just 0.05 percentage points based on the corrected data.

Linux has also exceeded 4% in previous surveys, so October’s result does not represent a new record.

16GB RAM returns to first place

The survey also shows that 16GB RAM has regained its position as the most common memory configuration, accounting for 41.42% of Steam users.

Meanwhile, 32GB RAM dropped to 37.06%, reversing the previous month’s ranking.

The substantial changes across GPU and RAM categories suggest that shifts in Steam’s survey sample may have contributed to the unusual month-to-month fluctuations.

The latest figures arrive as Steam continues to grow. The platform recently reached a record 43.5 million concurrent users and introduced achievement sets with completion trophies.

Steam Deck users can also try Xbox and PS5-inspired interface makeovers through free GitHub plugins.