Every month Valve put out their hardware survey, inside it shows off the market-share of operating systems and Linux has continued to decline.
For September 2017, Linux was at 0.60%. This is far from where Linux market-share on Steam was some time ago, although it has never been all that high anyway.
Here's a chart provided to me by EndeavourAccuracy (thanks!), which shows the unfortunate trend:
There could be many reasons for this, all of which I've probably mentioned before at some point. The one thing I would like to stress though, is that market-share declining doesn't necessarily mean less people. The amount of people using Linux for gaming on Steam, might actually be increasing, just not as quickly as Windows so it gets swallowed up. We know for a fact Steam is constantly growing and perhaps in markets where Linux isn't popular pushing the Linux share down. However, the opposite could obviously be true too.
I don't claim to have any answers on it. All we can do is speculate, since we know nothing about how Valve actually pick the systems that get selected for a survey. We know nothing about the numbers behind the percentages, or well, anything really.
We do need to take into account people who dual-boot, which isn't going to be a small number. Even our own limited survey shows about 31.78% of people also use Windows.
Obviously it's not good to see this trend, but as long as Linux games sell enough for a developer to be happy, that's the main point. Going by the last time I spoke to multiple developers about sales of their Linux games, most games mentioned in that article were selling well above the current percentage of Linux gamers as tracked by Steam.
I highly doubt Feral Interactive would also be announcing another Linux port, if the real amount of Linux gamers was declining either, since the types of titles they port would likely need a lot of sales to be worth it, yet they have two new titles currently being teased for Linux.
What are your thoughts on this?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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BabaoWhisky 2 Oct 2017
If Feral, Paradox, Obsidian, inXile, Larian stop to port their games on Linux, i go back to Windows completely.
Actually, i use pci-passthrough to play for no-Linux games ...
I'm not decided but i think to move to Windows before that.
Actually, i use pci-passthrough to play for no-Linux games ...
I'm not decided but i think to move to Windows before that.
1 Likes, Who?
charliebrownau 2 Oct 2017
We really need more UE4 and Unity games to support :-
OpenGL + OpenAL + SDL2 over DX11/dotnet
before supporting native Linux OS
OpenGL + OpenAL + SDL2 over DX11/dotnet
before supporting native Linux OS
0 Likes
stretch611 2 Oct 2017
Maybe if they counted WINE users as linux the numbers would be better. I'm sure they check the environment and can tell when their client is using WINE. These are people who obviously don't want to run windows, after all, as good as WINE is, it is more difficult to get things running properly with it than with native windows.
That being said, all the numbers are a blind crapshoot and really only represent trends. No one knows the actual numbers. Liam mentions some good points, and it doesn't even include people that avoid steam due to DRM or people that run distros that don't work well with steam.
Just make sure that if you dual boot to buy anything off of steam only on linux... otherwise it will count as a windows sale. I remember a long time ago Aspyr mentioning that they get paid based on linux buyers and that is how it was determined, so I am sure every developer gets a report with sales per OS. (I want to say that I saw that Aspyr note after the port of Civ V, so it has been a while.)
That being said, all the numbers are a blind crapshoot and really only represent trends. No one knows the actual numbers. Liam mentions some good points, and it doesn't even include people that avoid steam due to DRM or people that run distros that don't work well with steam.
Just make sure that if you dual boot to buy anything off of steam only on linux... otherwise it will count as a windows sale. I remember a long time ago Aspyr mentioning that they get paid based on linux buyers and that is how it was determined, so I am sure every developer gets a report with sales per OS. (I want to say that I saw that Aspyr note after the port of Civ V, so it has been a while.)
5 Likes, Who?
Nice graph, that says more than the individual numbers. I do wonder about the section before it though. In any case, it appears Steam is growing quicker for Windows users than it is for Linux users at the moment. And PUBG isn't doing it any favours either.
As for Windows users on this site. Even I do that at work. No chance of me getting a survey on Windows though.
As for Windows users on this site. Even I do that at work. No chance of me getting a survey on Windows though.
2 Likes, Who?
VinceNardelli 2 Oct 2017
This news hurt guys... But people want comfort over freedom and morals. I use Linux and wont use Windows not even in dual boot.
But imagine I am waiting for a game that I have been waiting for year, lets say the next Ken Levine game, after BioShock infinite.
Imagine it comes on win only. How difficult will it be for me not to use windows, even for that game?
The point is, more linux games will come and the customers will move towards it.
I still cant figure out how more linux games now lead to less linux users on steam. It just doesn't make sense.
Still, Valve has done a pretty crappy job with steam machine and the whole idea of linux more optimised than windows.
It s definitively not because of them that so many linux games are coming out.
I bet if Half Life 3 will ever come out it will be a Console only lol, give how much 'sense' they make right now
But imagine I am waiting for a game that I have been waiting for year, lets say the next Ken Levine game, after BioShock infinite.
Imagine it comes on win only. How difficult will it be for me not to use windows, even for that game?
The point is, more linux games will come and the customers will move towards it.
I still cant figure out how more linux games now lead to less linux users on steam. It just doesn't make sense.
Still, Valve has done a pretty crappy job with steam machine and the whole idea of linux more optimised than windows.
It s definitively not because of them that so many linux games are coming out.
I bet if Half Life 3 will ever come out it will be a Console only lol, give how much 'sense' they make right now
1 Likes, Who?
I wonder how much Chinese users, many of whom use pirated Windows software, contribute to these numbers. It would be interesting to see a regional breakdown.
6 Likes, Who?
Even our own limited survey shows about 31.78% of people also use Windows.
Including you :P
Anyway , main thing is we are so much dependent on Steam. We need at least one out of Steam but yet popular title.
Just thinking about LoL. Despite i found Dota2 much better ( ex Dota1 player ) , something like LoL is needed.
There are so many people only plays LoL and doing some web browsing.
We need them. If we want to grow , we need mediocre and mainstream gamers more than ever.
3 Likes, Who?
I wonder how much Chinese users, many of whom use pirated Windows software, contribute to these numbers. It would be interesting to see a regional breakdown.
Afaik , Ms has a Chinese edition of Windows which is totally free.
Case is , Steam wasn't allowed before in China. People were using Windows again , they just started to count on these statics.
0 Likes
As long as the AAA Companies dont release a Linux Version there is no chance for a Gamer to switch to Linux.
Gamers just follow newly AAA released games and the current gaming trend
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS is the current gaming madness and no Linux version
and before a couple of days everyone wanted to play Total War: WARHAMMER II
On September was Pro Evolution 2018 and so on ...
So Why a Gamer would want to switch to Linux?
Really there is absolutely no reason to switch to Linux.
Gamers just follow newly AAA released games and the current gaming trend
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS is the current gaming madness and no Linux version
and before a couple of days everyone wanted to play Total War: WARHAMMER II
On September was Pro Evolution 2018 and so on ...
So Why a Gamer would want to switch to Linux?
Really there is absolutely no reason to switch to Linux.
7 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man 2 Oct 2017
If Feral, Paradox, Obsidian, inXile, Larian stop to port their games on Linux, i go back to Windows completely.Nah, I would go console before I ever went back to Windows.
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Mountain Man 2 Oct 2017
Still, Valve has done a pretty crappy job with steam machine and the whole idea of linux more optimised than windows.This is really the problem. Valve was really excited about Linux gaming, got us excited about Linux gaming, got a few developers excited about Linux gaming, and then it's like they just sort of lost interest. I was really hoping they were more dedicated to this whole Linux thing than they have been.
5 Likes, Who?
VinceNardelli 2 Oct 2017
Still, Valve has done a pretty crappy job with steam machine and the whole idea of linux more optimised than windows.This is really the problem. Valve was really excited about Linux gaming, got us excited about Linux gaming, got a few developers excited about Linux gaming, and then it's like they just sort of lost interest. I was really hoping they were more dedicated to this whole Linux thing than they have been.
Losing interest is kind of their habit, from developing OS to hardware to games.
Can people really get excited about the VR after all their lost interests? I don't wish them too much luck on that because frankly they...don't deserve it
1 Likes, Who?
Even our own limited survey shows about 31.78% of people also use Windows.
Including you :P
Anyway , main thing is we are so much dependent on Steam. We need at least one out of Steam but yet popular title.
Does "War Thunder" suffice?
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I can tell you one thing: I have Steam auto-running on Linux all day. It's very rare for me to go to Windows *AND* open Steam. Yet, the one time I did so, a hardware survey windows popped up. COME ON!!!
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I wonder how much Chinese users, many of whom use pirated Windows software, contribute to these numbers. It would be interesting to see a regional breakdown.As Leopard says too, that's actually a really good point. Steam's currently exploding in popularity in China, and they're pretty much all on Windows.
But it's interesting that on the one hand we have the Netmarketshare story (even if it's not quite as earth-shattering as it first seemed), and on the other we have this. I think it just reflects the poor state of the Linux gaming market. Overall we're on the rise, but gaming is still difficult. Don't get me wrong; it's infinitely better than it was just three or four years ago, but there are still plenty of major developers who won't even look at Linux. We're nowhere near the stage where it's simply expected that a newly-announced game will be on Linux, and unusual if it isn't. Until that changes, it'll be an uphill battle to persuade gamers to switch. Maybe Atari will give us another boost, like Valve did.
But if the big games stop coming to Linux, I stop playing the big games. It's as simple as that.
5 Likes, Who?
For me the steam hardware survey for linux users is nonsens. Windows users get this survey like spam and are not willing to fill it out anymore becasue it pops up so often and linux users nearly never see it pop up. Whatever is going on there, for me this survey simply doesn't work!
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ShoNuff!!! 2 Oct 2017
Recently, I had to install Windows and dual boot after years (2003) of linux only because I have a AMD Vega 64... which is not yet supported on Arch linux unless I downgrade kernel (or compile and config) and a few other items. So I wait patiently for kernel 4.15 hoping AMDGPU DC is implemented.
Last edited by ShoNuff!!! on 2 Oct 2017 at 11:38 pm UTC
Last edited by ShoNuff!!! on 2 Oct 2017 at 11:38 pm UTC
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ShoNuff!!! 2 Oct 2017
But if the big games stop coming to Linux, I stop playing the big games. It's as simple as that.
You say no tux no bucks... but for most it's no triple A no tux. I was on board but lately... since building my new gaming rig... and being forced to use Widows in dual boot... I have enjoyed the big titles I had been missing for the last 14 years.
Though Vulkan is here... unless developers port it means less and less people stick around. Unless Feral or someone else can get deals to port for same day releases (or within a month release) market share will keep slipping for linux gaming.
2 Likes, Who?
Steam supposedly had,
7 million users in January 2014
15 million users as of September 2017
Linux share has roughly halved during this time frame.
7 million users in January 2014
15 million users as of September 2017
Linux share has roughly halved during this time frame.
1 Likes, Who?
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