Gamers who are currently playing their Steam PC games on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 may want to update by the end of 2023. A support article on the Steam Website has revealed that the game service will no longer support Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 versions beginning January 1 next year. The client will no longer function on said versions despite having it installed.

Here’s the full statement from the Steam support article:

As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems. After that date, the Steam Client will no longer run on those versions of Windows. In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows.

The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.

The article mentions that the reason for the discontinued support is due to the platform’s reliance on Google Chrome, which itself does not support older Windows versions. Interestingly, this may be related to a recent discovery that Steam will be adding a couple of new features to the client in the future.

Source: Steam Support