Steam Survey: 32GB RAM Becomes Most Common Configuration

The September 2026 Steam Survey shows 32GB of system RAM is now the most common configuration among surveyed gaming PCs at 42.22%, up 4.77% month-over-month, according to tomshardware.com. 16GB configurations fell 3.38% to 37.82% in the same survey.

Smaller shifts appeared in other capacities: 24GB configurations rose 0.34% to 2.56%, and 48GB increased 0.26% to 1.46%.

AMD reached 48.37% overall CPU share on Steam, its highest this year, while Intel holds 51.63%. Among Windows users, Intel has 52.59% and AMD 47.41%; among Linux users, AMD has 66.18% versus Intel's 33.71%.

Valve's platform also reported a peak of more than 38 million concurrent players at the time of writing.

Earlier context

In May 2026, the Steam Survey showed AMD at a little under 45% CPU share. Microsoft previously called 16GB the new 'practical starting point' and recommended 32GB as the future-proof 'no worries' configuration for gaming, then quietly erased this suggestion after releasing 8GB base Surface laptops a few months later. Minecraft, which had not updated its system requirements for 17 years, increased its recommended memory to 16GB earlier this year.