Steam's September hardware survey brought a clear headline: NVIDIA's RTX 5070 is now the most used card on the list, overtaking two long-running favorites. The jump is large. The reasons behind it are more interesting than the number itself.

The RTX 5070 takes the top spot

According to the September figures, the RTX 5070 reached 6.15% of surveyed systems. That puts it ahead of the RTX 4060 and the RTX 3060, the two cards that had been leading the chart.

A month earlier, the RTX 5070 sat at just 3.77%. Adding roughly 2.4 percentage points in one survey cycle is an unusually big move for a single GPU.

It wasn't only about sales

It would be easy to credit a month of heavy RTX 5070 sales. The report argues that sales alone don't explain a leap of this size. Another factor shifted the statistics.

The Simplified Chinese effect

In September, systems running Simplified Chinese as their language grew by about 7.42%. That is a major change, and it moved the overall mix of hardware in the survey.

The report sees the rising share of Chinese systems as the biggest reason the RTX 5070 reached 6.15%.

Steam's survey samples the users who take part, so when one region's share of the sample grows, the popular hardware in that region rises with it. Part of the RTX 5070's jump reflects who was counted, not only what was bought.

The RTX 5060 family rises too

The RTX 5070 wasn't the only beneficiary. In the same statistics, the RTX 5060 climbed to 4.40% and the RTX 5060 Ti reached 4.06%. Newer mainstream cards are gaining ground as a group.

32GB RAM is the new majority pick

The RAM chart changed as well. Systems with 32GB are now the most common at 42.22%, ahead of 16GB systems at 37.82%. With memory prices climbing, it is notable that gamers are still moving up.

What it means

The RTX 5070 is a strong, popular card, and its place at the top of the chart is real. But a single month's survey is a snapshot shaped by who took part. Before treating 6.15% as a permanent new baseline, wait for the next few releases and see whether the share holds once the regional mix settles.