All good things come to an end eventually, and that includes support for 32bit Windows in Steam.
As of January 1 2026, Steam will stop supporting systems running 32-bit versions of Windows. Windows 10 32-bit is the only 32-bit version that is currently supported by Steam and is only in use on 0.01% of systems reported through the Steam Hardware Survey. Windows 10 64-bit will still be supported and 32-bit games will still run.
↫ Steam support article
While existing installations will continue to work, they will no longer receive any Steam updates or support. Valve obviously advises the small sliver of users still using 32bit Windows – unbeknownst to them, I’m sure – to upgrade to a 64bit release. Upcoming versions of Steam will only work on 64bit systems.
and yet they can’t be arsed to support 64-bit Linux…
Strange, I run Steam on my 64-bit Linux system all the time.
A few 32bit libraries for compatibility are nothing compared to the size of the average game these days.
KelsonV,
It’s pretty clear that the steam launcher doesn’t really need 64bit at all. But the reason to switch would be like you said, moving beyond the 32bit dependencies. It’s going to happen at some point, but I’m not sure there’s much urgency to do it at the moment.
@Alfman
When Steam on Linux finally switches to 64 bit, the only difference will be that it soaks up a bit more memory.