Windows 10 support ended on October 14; $30 ESU available
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Key points
- End of life for Windows 10 is here, with consumer ESU available for $30 until October 2026.
- Steam still shows a large portion of users on Windows 10 PCs (about one-third in Sep 2025 survey), which is unusual.
- Gaming is moving to Windows 11: Nvidia keeps drivers to Oct 2026, FFXIV and recent Monster Hunter games drop Windows 10 support.
Microsoft’s free support for Windows 10 ended on October 14, 2025. PCs continue to function, but security updates stop without paid ESU. Some AAA titles no longer promise Windows 10 support and newer games list Windows 11 as required, while about a third of Steam PCs still use Windows 10.
Microsoft ended Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025. As a result, Home/Pro/Education editions no longer receive free security updates or bug fixes. A Consumer Extended Security Updates (ESU) option is available through October 13, 2026, via Settings in a Microsoft account. The option is priced at $30 per device for the year, and one ESU license can be used on up to 10 devices.
For gaming, most apps and titles continue to function, but the ecosystem is transitioning to Windows 11. Nvidia will ship full Game Ready/Studio drivers on Windows 10 until October 2026, then move to quarterly security-only updates through October 2029.
Final Fantasy XIV dropped Windows 10 support on October 14, 2025, and Capcom says it won’t guarantee Monster Hunter: World, Rise, and Wilds working correctly on Windows 10 after that date. These games may still launch on older PCs, but updates won’t be validated.
New releases are shifting to Windows 11: Battlefield 6 recommends Windows 11 and requires Secure Boot for its anti-cheat to run, while Silent Hill f lists Windows 11 as the minimum.
Windows 11’s hardware requirements slow the transition
On Steam, Windows 11 held 66.08% in September 2025, while Windows 10 was 33.74%, meaning roughly a third of active Windows gaming PCs are still on Windows 10. By comparison, Windows 8 and 8.1 together were only about 4% of Windows PCs shortly before their January 2023 cutoff, per StatCounter.
Driven by the Windows 11 migration as Windows 10 support ends, the PC gaming hardware market is projected to reach $44.5 billion in 2025. Windows 11 has strict hardware requirements (TPM 2.0 and newer CPUs), leaving many Windows 10 PCs ineligible for an upgrade.
Microsoft is also pushing forced installs on eligible PCs this month: the Copilot app auto-installs on Windows devices that already have Microsoft 365 desktop apps (EEA is exempt), and on enterprise-managed Windows 11 machines, Microsoft will deploy new People, File Search, and Calendar taskbar apps with startup by default.
Driven by the Windows 11 migration as Windows 10 support ends, the PC gaming hardware market is projected to reach $44.5 billion in 2025. Windows 11 has strict hardware requirements (TPM 2.0 and newer CPUs), leaving many Windows 10 PCs ineligible for an upgrade.
