Steam OSX Penetration Declines

The latest Steam Hardware survey is out, and shows that 5% of Steam users are playing on a Mac. This number is down significantly from June, where Steam was 8.13% of all Steam users. Other numbers:

* Windows XP 32 bit is still the predominant operating system at 32.73%, though Windows 7 is seeing improved penetration. The 64 bit version of Windows 7 is used on 28.24 of all clients, with 32 bit being employed by 12.42%

* Among Mac users, 53.61% have 4GB of RAM, compared with 31.15% having 2GB. However, the combined numbers are much lower, with 27.23% of all users having 2GB of RAM, and 26.17% using 3GB. Only 22.19% of all users have 4GB of RAM, which make the Mac numbers disproportionate.

* Dual core CPUs are the vast majority of CPUs, at 56.82%. Quad cores are 26.57% of the market, though have risen 15.45% over the past 18 months.

* Intel is the dominant CPU manufacturer by a long shot, on 72.37% of all systems.

* The ATI Radeon 4800 series - especially the 4870 - are still the king of the video cards, with 7.21% of the market, though the 5700 and 5800 series of cards are trending upward.

* For the first time, a software survey is out, showing the percentage of certain pieces of software that are installed on the system. Adobe products - especially Flash and Reader - feature big, as does Mozilla Firefox. Shockingly, Internet Explorer is used on only 19.82% of Steam connected users, and Chrome comes in third at 11.56%.

The Mac numbers aren't surprising. Once the new car smell wore off, people realized that the Mac-enabled games were either a couple of years old (Orange Box), casual (Bejewled 2) or smaller, indie games (World of Goo, Braid). Virtually all of the big-name games on the system are PC exclusive, and until this changes, we can expect that Steam won't be the game-changer when it comes to gaming on the Mac that we thought it would be.