Despite high RAM prices, players in February 2026 have significantly better computers than before. However, this seems to be only on the surface. The Chinese New Year complicates the numbers.
What data are we looking at? Steam asks thousands of players every month about the hardware they use in their PCs. The data is automatically collected and sent anonymously if the player consents.
There are again new data from February 2026 regarding the gaming systems used by players. Some figures are surprisingly high, but there is a surprisingly simple explanation behind them.
30% more Chinese players and 1 in 5 users now has more than 32 GB of RAM in their PCs
What do the current data say? Particularly interesting is that there are significant movements in the memory sector. Given the high prices, one might initially suspect that the numbers would stagnate or hardly change.
However, according to Steam, there has been a significant increase in areas concerning system memory and RAM. Compared to last month, players now have significantly more RAM and storage in their computers:
- The number of players who have 32 GB of RAM in their computers has grown by 18.91%. Meanwhile, the share of systems with 16 GB of RAM has decreased by 12.77%.
- At the same time, the share of players who reportedly have more than 4 TB of storage has also increased by 15.64%. Overall, all storage over 1 TB has seen a slight or significant increase.
- Another notable point: The share of players using Steam in Chinese has increased by 30%.
However, the rising Chinese numbers are largely due to an event that occurs annually: This year’s Chinese New Year took place from February 17, 2026, to March 3, 2026.
The Chinese New Year distorts and shifts the statistics on Steam
What is behind this? The reason seems to be according to Reddit a normal occurrence: During the Chinese New Year, many Chinese players play online, and afterwards, the numbers for the language and some technical specifications drop again.
This can also be substantiated quite well with facts. For example, if you look at the Steam survey data from February 2025, there are similar movements in the data:
- The number of users using Steam in Chinese rises sharply but drops significantly again in March 2025.
- The number of systems with 32 GB of RAM increases significantly (13.7% in February 2025), only to decrease again in the following March.
The problem is that these distortions make the data for this period almost unusable unless one is interested in the hardware of Chinese players, which shifts the data accordingly.
Have thousands of players now invested money in new hardware? Due to the distorted data, this cannot be truly determined. It is quite possible that Chinese players receive a new gaming PC as a gift for the New Year and immediately set it up by installing Steam on it.
After all, the Chinese New Year is comparable to Christmas in the West, where a lot of money is spent compared to the rest of the year. It will therefore be interesting to see how strongly certain numbers drop again after February 2026.
And there’s more news from China: Cheap Chinese RAM was long considered a hidden gem. However, the chance for affordable RAM from China is now over. Chinese companies are increasingly focusing on memory for data centers: Chinese RAM was seen as hope by many players, but that opportunity has already passed within just a few weeks
