Steam survey finds 47% of Mac gamers run Apple's MacBook Pro
Valve's monthly survey of the hardware specifications of Steam users has found that nearly half of Mac gamers run a MacBook Pro, while the iMac accounts for nearly a quarter.
Released this week, the Steam survey for July 2010 shows MacBook Pro owners accounting for 46.78 percent of Mac hardware ownership. The iMac comes in second with 23.18 percent, while 20.25 percent of gamers played on Apple's low-end, entry-level MacBook.
Apple's high-end desktop, the Mac Pro, came in fourth, with 5.41 percent of Macs that logged into Steam for the month. Finally, the Mac mini represented 3.44 percent of Mac users.
Just over 5 percent of all Steam users connected to the gaming service via a Mac. The number suggests some of the initial excitement surrounding Steam for Mac died down, as more than 8 percent of gamers used Mac OS X in May 2010.
The lion's share of Mac users have upgraded to Snow Leopard, as a total of 4.3 percent on the serve were running Mac OS X 10.6.3 64-bit. Another 0.77 percent remain on Leopard, running Mac OS X 10.5.8 64-bit.
Mac users overwhelmingly have more system RAM than other gamers, with 53.61 percent of all users carrying 4GB in their system. Another 31.15 percent had just 2GB, which is the most common capacity of all Steam users.
Most run the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics card, while the most common primary display resolution is 1280 by 800 pixels. More than 90 percent of Mac owners have a system with two physical CPUs.
Steam is a digital game distribution platform which has more than 25 million users and offers access to 1,100 games on the PC. Developer Valve has said it will treat the Mac as a "first-tier" platform, meaning new major titles developed for the PC will release day-and-date with the Mac.
High-profile releases from Valve for Mac OS X so far have included Game of the Year award winners Portal and Half-Life 2. Valve has also made native OS X support for the Source engine available to licensees for use in their games. The company has also made its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform, including product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more.
Released this week, the Steam survey for July 2010 shows MacBook Pro owners accounting for 46.78 percent of Mac hardware ownership. The iMac comes in second with 23.18 percent, while 20.25 percent of gamers played on Apple's low-end, entry-level MacBook.
Apple's high-end desktop, the Mac Pro, came in fourth, with 5.41 percent of Macs that logged into Steam for the month. Finally, the Mac mini represented 3.44 percent of Mac users.
Just over 5 percent of all Steam users connected to the gaming service via a Mac. The number suggests some of the initial excitement surrounding Steam for Mac died down, as more than 8 percent of gamers used Mac OS X in May 2010.
The lion's share of Mac users have upgraded to Snow Leopard, as a total of 4.3 percent on the serve were running Mac OS X 10.6.3 64-bit. Another 0.77 percent remain on Leopard, running Mac OS X 10.5.8 64-bit.
Mac users overwhelmingly have more system RAM than other gamers, with 53.61 percent of all users carrying 4GB in their system. Another 31.15 percent had just 2GB, which is the most common capacity of all Steam users.
Most run the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics card, while the most common primary display resolution is 1280 by 800 pixels. More than 90 percent of Mac owners have a system with two physical CPUs.
Steam is a digital game distribution platform which has more than 25 million users and offers access to 1,100 games on the PC. Developer Valve has said it will treat the Mac as a "first-tier" platform, meaning new major titles developed for the PC will release day-and-date with the Mac.
High-profile releases from Valve for Mac OS X so far have included Game of the Year award winners Portal and Half-Life 2. Valve has also made native OS X support for the Source engine available to licensees for use in their games. The company has also made its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform, including product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more.
Comments
Released this week, the Steam survey for July 2010 shows MacBook Pro owners accounting for 46.78 percent of Mac hardware ownership. The iMac comes in second with 23.18 percent, while 20.25 percent of gamers played on Apple's low-end, entry-level MacBook.
Apple's high-end desktop, the Mac Pro, came in third, with 5.41 percent of Macs that logged into Steam for the month. Finally, the Mac mini represented 3.44 percent of Mac users.
You really need to proofread your articles.
1. MacBook Pro
2. iMac
3. MacBook
4. Mac Pro
Steam's hardware surveys are always an interesting read, especially seeing how many people are still running Windows XP!
I'm still using Boot Camp for my gaming needs. Even on my 2010 15" MBP, Team Fortress 2 doesn't run at an acceptable rate under OSX. Hopefully things will improve over the next year.
Steam's hardware surveys are always an interesting read, especially seeing how many people are still running Windows XP!
Weird, my 2 year old MacBook Pro runs it fine.
Start releasing decent games and people will start logging in.
Weird, my 2 year old MacBook Pro runs it fine.
Maybe we've got a different definition of fine.
So its intel Mac's only, which is pretty much only dual core. Add to that there are only so many models Apple of computers from Apple. Then subtract everything that only has Intel GPU's which probably eleminates all single core CPU models, and you are left with mini's and macbooks that that share almost the exact same guts (9400/dual core) and a few others.
Its not like Mac users are going out to new egg and buying a new video card to upgrade their Mac, which would give steam a bunch of more data.
Of course the number of people logging on has dropped, I can't think of a single high profile game release since Team Fortress 2.
Start releasing decent games and people will start logging in.
I second that. I installed Steam about a month ago but didn't find a single game to play on it. I am not into "shoot as many as you can before they shoot you" games and I found out there are not many of those (I might like) for OSX on Steam. Most of the games I might like to play are for Windows clients only. :-(
Maybe we've got a different definition of fine.
I got around that by running at a lower resolution. It still looks pretty good IMO. I commute on a train, so being able to game while riding to/from work is a huge bonus for me. I have a mid 2010 i7 15" macbook pro. I can get over an hour of play time on a full charge. Pretty amazing.
I haven't played a steam title since Starcraft 2 came out. I will go back to them when I have finished the campaign in Starcraft 2.
I used to buy Mac Pros, but those days are over. The iMac is just fine for home use and casual gaming, even if it doesn't have a cutting edge video card. I hate gaming on the MBP and I only do that when I'm traveling.
yeah. mac pro's have become so unreachably and unnecessarily expensive that it doesn't even warrant looking at them as an option. You literally only need them if you're in need of running 3 or more video cards concurrently or some other pci card. casual gamers aren't going to drop 10 grand on a desktop machine to play games. that's just stupid. the starting price is 3 grand? really? someone's lost their damn mind.
But, but, Macs don't run DirectX which makes it not a very good gaming machine.
sadly, that still holds true. They're only mediocre gaming machines when they run OS X.
I am not into "shoot as many as you can before they shoot you" games and there are still not many of those for OSX on Steam.
Since you are not into "shoot as many as you can before they shoot you games", why do you care if there are not many?
sadly, that still holds true. They're only mediocre gaming machines when they run OS X.
I guess you didn't catch on to the fact that my comment was mimicking Steve Ballmer's comments about the iPhone not being "a very good email machine".
OS X runs games just fine.
You really need to proofread your articles.
1. MacBook Pro
2. iMac
3. MacBook
4. Mac Pro
and "ore" when you meant to say "more"
there's another article about the 7 inch iPad where "teh" is used instead of "the"
I have a Macbook Pro. I don't play a single game other than Sudoku.
cool?
the 13 year old in me wants to call you a n00b for being a casual.
macbook pro...get starcraft 2!!! i wish my old macbook would run it.
yeah. mac pro's have become so unreachably and unnecessarily expensive that it doesn't even warrant looking at them as an option. You literally only need them if you're in need of running 3 or more video cards concurrently or some other pci card. casual gamers aren't going to drop 10 grand on a desktop machine to play games. that's just stupid. the starting price is 3 grand? really? someone's lost their damn mind.
I have a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0 ghz) from 2004. Not a problem for what is now six years. It is currently my full time desktop computer. Meanwhile my iMac from 2007 (Snow Leopard) is slow (surprisingly slower than my PowerMac with PPC leopard). I'm convinced that Mac Pro is the best bang for your buck if you don't (want to) buy machines often.
I plan to buy a Mac Pro when this one finally dies.