New Steam on Linux Market Share Stats 'Likely the Largest Surveyed Figure Ever' (phoronix.com) 38
"The July 2025 results of the Steam Survey were posted a few minutes ago," Phoronix reported last night, "and show a healthy 0.32% increase to put the Linux gaming marketshare at 2.89%."
That's a recent high in percentage terms and while Steam saw around 3% in the early days of Steam on Linux a decade ago, in absolute terms this is likely the largest surveyed figure ever for the Linux gaming population.
Linux was at 2.89% for July while macOS was at 1.88% and Windows at 95.23%.
There does seem to be a jagged line that's trending upward...
November: 2.03%
December: 2.29%
January: 2.06%
February: 1.45%
March: 2.33%
April: 2.27%
May: 2.69%
June: 2.57%
July: 2.89%
Linux was at 2.89% for July while macOS was at 1.88% and Windows at 95.23%.
There does seem to be a jagged line that's trending upward...
November: 2.03%
December: 2.29%
January: 2.06%
February: 1.45%
March: 2.33%
April: 2.27%
May: 2.69%
June: 2.57%
July: 2.89%
Steam Decks (Score:5, Interesting)
The Linux based Steam Deck probably has a lot to do with this. There are lots of people that are playing games on Linux that don't even know it since they've got it working so well
Re:Steam Decks (Score:5, Informative)
For sure, but it's definitely just part of it. They break down the hardware and distros used. SteamOS is a bit under 30%.
The momentum is undeniable. At this rate it could pretty easily break 10% in 3-5 years. It's already having a lot of subtle but important effects. Peripheral makers like 8bitdo, Hori, and even Sony, are all supporting Linux all of a sudden. Tons of game publishers are too.
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What desktop Linux always needed was the right benevolent corporate overlord.
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Thing is, this isn't even a joke, if we look at it as instead "Linux needed someone with major influence to make a point of it".
Combine with Microsoft having some missteps with Windows and cramming more invasive stuff into it, and it's little surprise people are switching. I expect it will remain a small market share since the Steam Survey is looking at *every* user of Steam, including people who only have it because it is where their one favorite game lives. However, I would not be surprised to see the 'co
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What desktop Linux always needed was the right benevolent corporate overlord.
It needed many, and it keeps gaining them. It's inevitable that "all" software (some deliberately proprietary examples aside) that will eventually become or be replaced by Free Software if it's not prevented deliberately, because of the advantages. Linux is simply the most important example at the moment.
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The steam deck itself seems to have held up very well in terms of the semi-custom CPU's priorities, the target resolution, the peripherals included, and the
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As long as that share includes me, I'm happy.
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Sony has supported Linux before, it didn't go well.
What is 8bitdo doing anyway? They don't have to do anything special to make their programming software work on Linux. Just do it as a web container and it's easy to build it that way too. Electron, in Chrome, or what have you. And their controllers speak standard protocols as well, so there's no need for them to do drivers...
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The Linux based Steam Deck probably has a lot to do with this. There are lots of people that are playing games on Linux that don't even know it since they've got it working so well
While Steam Decks certainly are a large factor (SteamOS Holo is the largest share at 28%), I suspect the recent growth has more to do with the success of SteamOS-adjacent options like Arch (11%) or Bazzite (3%), and the rise in other handhelds running these for the performance/efficiency benefits involved. Headlines like this [youtu.be] are starting to convince gamers who are indifferent about Linux that it is the superior gaming OS.
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Re: Steam Decks (Score:1)
Or because of proton-wine. I use to boot Windows to play games and run Linux for everything else. Now I play games on linux with proton/wine and stay in Linux for gaming.
Steam Decks are not counted in 2.89% Linux ! (Score:1)
Steam Decks are NOT counted in the 2.89% ! Proof is in the full statistics on Steam website..
Steam OS Holo is 28% of statistic in "Linux Only" OS page, but this OS is not listed at all in the "Combined" page with the 2.89% market share.
Thus (if all Holo installs are all on Steam Deck)
- Steam Deck is roughly 1% of steam users
- With Steam Deck, the part of Linux is around 3.7% (0.28*2.89 + 2.89)
- 3.7% is the double of the 1.88% of MacOS.
- Windows 11+10+7 is 95% (remaining 5% of Steam is still not negligible,
Steam Decks IS counted in the 2.89% Linux ! (Score:1)
Sorry, my mistake ! Yes, it is counted !
The OS market share of Debian or Arch are stable between "Linux Only" and "Combined", thus Steam OS Holo is still there, but it is just not listed.
It should appear as the first Linux, at 0.8%
Why, It is not listed ? No idea :-)
Yep (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft is really pissing themselves with fear now.
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Despite those systems being genuinely well above average in terms of bringing remotely mac-like battery life to Windows; and(despite...optimistic...MSRPs) often appearing on sale at decently attractive price points; it appears that some mixture of apathy, in
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Windows on ARM has always been a steep uphill climb based on the specter of compatibility issues with existing applications so if you're a business customer why risk it on your next fleet deployment and for the average consumer if they want that mac like batter life they'd get a Mac, at least you know what you're getting there with compatibility.
It's also lays at the hand of Intel for bungling and then abandoning their ARM stuff as that would have greased the OEM and compatibility issues. After that it lay
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+3 here. (Score:2)
I moved three machines to pop_os, rather than Windows 11. All three run steam regularly.
I was surprised to see marvel rivals (Score:2)
The trouble is there isn't really a lot in it for Epic, Blizzard and Activision. You're not just competing for that 3% market share you're going after people that won't just run a separate Windows install and dual boot.
And it's extremely tough to make the anti cheat software work. If i
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WoW is dying, deservedly so.
But this is a chicken and egg situation. If the numbers keep climbing, at some point they'll make the anti-cheat linux compatible and then we might get a hockey stick.
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Wow is strange.
I left after CAT as WOTLK was it's height before activation started ruining things after the Ulder patch in WOTLK by nerfing and adding raid finder. But Classic anneversary has its users including myself. I came back after 13 years.
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What is it about linux that makes anti cheat so much harder to make work on it? Admin/system rights management that's more pro-user?
Re: I was surprised to see marvel rivals (Score:5, Interesting)
Many anti cheats essentially require a rootkit. My guess is Linux users aren't generally stupid enough to install that sort of stuff.
It's also very hard for them to verify their rootkit is going to be truly effective on such disparate systems. Something like Windows on TPM is the gold standard for losing control of your hardware to some random software vendor.
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>"Something like Windows on TPM is the gold standard for losing control of your hardware to some random software vendor."
LOL! So perfectly-worded :)
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These days there are enough Linux users that you can be sure some of them would willfully install kernel anti-cheat software to get a game to run. But as you say, it would be of little use. Also, they would have to support a lot of kernels even if customizations weren't a problem, due to all the versions in concurrent use.
Nothing particular (Score:2)
So you're chasing ma
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What is it about linux that makes anti cheat so much harder to make work on it? Admin/system rights management that's more pro-user?
Heterogeneity.
A lot of anti-cheat solutions rely on an index of known safe software stacks, which are determined by taking checksums of various library dependencies. On Linux, the same library may be compiled with different options by thousands of different distributors, may have a wide range of versions still supported... The lazy technique that most anti-cheats rely on to distinguish real system libraries from hacked ones is impossible under such conditions. Not to mention, some of the components games
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I think it's the open source nature, but please somebody correct me if I'm wrong. On Windows, they have you install a closed-source rootkit in a closed-source OS. I think cheaters counter this (or at least used to) by running the game in a virtual machine. This allows them to control the virtual hardware the game is running on. Flip the right bits and suddenly the rootkit reports that everything is A-OK despite whatever fuckery the cheater is doing. This is why many modern games refuse to run in virtual mac
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That's what... like 4 million? Have a nice day.
Windows at 95.23% (Score:2)
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I just bought a PC with Windows 11, and even logged into it and poked around a little bit. I did not open a Microsoft account.
However, I also did not load Steam until I put Linux on it.
I agree with Scotty (Score:2)
Use the right tool for the job. Linus Torvalds himself said he liked Office and PowerPoint and it makes sense to use the OS which your software was designed for.
Personally I am considering buying a console for the first time ever. Nvidia greed and games running better on $499 PS5 suboptimal RDNA 2 with Unreal 5 than $4000 PCs mean there is some serious issues with Windows :-/.
BlackMyth Wukong beats my 5080 hands on a playstation. I got into so many flamewars over this from PCMR fanboys saying I am retarded
LOL (Score:1)
Probably even severely skewed (Score:2)
I mean just like the numbers based on running Javascript from advertisement servers, the numbers on Steam probably are severely skewed away from Linux and *BSD. There is a correlation between not loading advertis or not playing computer games and running Linux and *BSD. Just like there is a correlation between a work computer and it running Windows.
I mean even heavily Windows-oriented websites, mostly browsed from work computers, like heise.de report much higher numbers than that.