Turns out Linux market share on Steam did not go back up in December

Anecdotal evidence from my local LUG (Linux User Group)

You could come to the conclusion that perhaps many Linux users are not using steam for verious reasons, No games of interest? Don't like DRM? Simply don't play games?

- Most don't have steam. So 10% of the Linux users to have steam could be accurate.

- A lot, like more than 50%, don't play games.

- Of the rest, quite a few only play drm-free games, some of them have a gog.com account, others only play open-source games.

- There are also a few that only play on console. Usually PS3/4, sometimes Nintendo too, rarely XBox.

And finally

- the avid players usually also have a windows-machine for playing, some even use Windows exclusively for gaming, and don't have steam installed on Linux.

A downward trend driven by China is still a downward trend. Yet another reason to improve input method integration in Linux desktops.

Buggy word processing in your native language is a non-starter for any computer system, even one distributed at no cost.

Let's be honest about something, Windows is also native-language only on the surface, when you start messing around with settings and registry everything is in English and that is the same for majority of operating systems, there's just no way any OS can rewrite everything from scratch in all the languages.

I find Linux to be completely compatible with my native language, not sure about Chinese.

Do you need to install and configure "optional" components like ibus or fcitx to write in your language? IME integration is very poor and even when properly configured can cause conflicts and crashes with the DE.

Documentation and translation for non-European languages can also use some work. But even then, what good is it to read the system documentation if you can't write an email to your friends and family?


Last edited by Kon on 8 Jan 2018 at 12:55 pm UTC

I prefer these statistics:
-> Net Marketshare - Operating System Market Share

Linux != only gaming != only Steam.


Last edited by KuJo on 8 Jan 2018 at 1:12 pm UTC

My personal approach has long been concentrating on improving ecosystem, buying Linux games and supporting vendors who support Linux platform.

As for actual share of Steam users - while that number might cause mild depression, I am still maintaining actual sales numbers and developer engagement and feel about community matters more. Let's be frank - being a bit over 1% didn't made any big publisher to dip into SteamOS, why would now be any different.

I also agree that just pushing articles for those numbers feels useless. What about having regular reviews of performance, ecosystem, issues and how to solve them? How about best sims on Linux? Best horror games? Best RPGs? Best online games?

Give some meaty articles.

In my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).

It doesn't count overall Linux market share, nor is it intended to do so. It counts STEAM USERS ON LINUX and nothing else. Important distinction which a lot of people seem to miss.

What it's really counting is the percentage of people who were randomly selected and agree to be counted, which, considering how paranoid a lot of Linux users seem to be, is probably a very small percentage of Linux users on Steam.

In my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).

It doesn't count overall Linux market share, nor is it intended to do so. It counts STEAM USERS ON LINUX and nothing else. Important distinction which a lot of people seem to miss.

What it's really counting is the percentage of people who were randomly selected and agree to be counted, which, considering how paranoid a lot of Linux users seem to be, is probably a very small percentage of Linux users on Steam.

Possibly. On the other hand, judging by the comment sections in this type of articles, it seems like Linux users (those who drop comments at least) care a lot about having their platform be more visible in the statistics so I'm not sure which way it goes. Pretty sure Windows users don't care much about the survey though. They have no reason to make their platform more visible to attract more game ports and such.

All WINE users, dual booters and VM users are counted as Windows users. So whats matter?

Steam in this moments must be show % of users using wine, this date will be interesting

^_^


Last edited by mrdeathjr on 8 Jan 2018 at 5:28 pm UTC

Content is king and at the moment there's not enough AAA content to make me bother firing Steam up again. The other problem is that AAA gaming in general has been pretty lacklustre outside of the Playstation 4 platform.

This isn't going to change anytime soon. Hell, even if PUBG is released on Linux, you won't see a significant difference in the numbers. People will just use whatever everyone else is using: Windows.

The _only_ chance Linux would see any increase is if there is a successful console out there that is based on SteamOS. Just think about it, would Linux be dominating mobile market if it wasn't for Android/Google? No way, it would probably be even less than %0.1 worldwide.

So, just be thankful we have developers who are willing to release games for this sub 1% market. The good news is that many tools now (UE4/Unity5..etc) make it a lot easier for developers to release for Linux, and so no significant downtime is required to support extra platforms as it was before. As this trend continues, along with Vulkan becoming more stream, this should lead to more games getting released on Linux as a by-product of these technologies maturing.

Isn't the methodology the survey that we participate at random times? I think it just checks then the OS Steam is running on and that's it.

No, just because you randomly fill out a survey doesn't mean you know what Valve is doing with it. In science, it would be laughed at until they submitted their methods to peer review.

The other thing is that it was designed as a hardware survey. I am sure that the Steam client reports the OS to Valve at each login. There is no need for a survey. If they wanted, Valve could show live OS stats just like they do for concurrent users.

As I said, we should just ignore this "random" survey garbage.

So, just be thankful we have developers who are willing to release games for this sub 1% market.

Linux market is not sub 1%. Just stop repeating this.

Check out Boiling Steam's recent interview with Timothee Besset. It sheds light on some of the questions discussed here. Specifically Valve's grand plan regarding SteamOS/Linux, challenges of getting big AAA devs on the platform etc.

Check out Boiling Steam's recent interview with Timothee Besset. It sheds light on some of the questions discussed here. Specifically Valve's grand plan regarding SteamOS/Linux, challenges of getting big AAA devs on the platform etc.

This deserves it's own article no?

Catering to Chinese users for inflated user numbers is not the 'wae'. They're like a pub crawl (no pun intended).

"Catering to Chinese users" is damn good business. You make it sound like they're doing it to spite us.

Valve just provides the marketplace. Of course they could do something like split player bases into regions in their own games, but imposing these limits on third party publishers and developers would smell a bit too much like politics. Although developers themselves are already able to limit their games to certain regions/markets. They are not victims here.

Your gripes about censorship and virtual currency farming are really off topic. I don't know how you got there from Valve's supposed hostility towards Linux.

Valve just provides the marketplace. Of course they could do something like split player bases into regions in their own games, but imposing these limits on third party publishers and developers would smell a bit too much like politics.

OK... but I never said they had to (impose limits)? For the record they most certainly DO have to, legally. Some titles cannot be sold in all regions or have to be modified.

That's true, but I think you forgot your own point.

Although developers themselves are already able to limit their games to certain regions/markets. They are not victims here.

But again I never said they had to.

The are not victims here" -- Nice double entendre.

No, you didn't say they had to limit access, but if you're griping about China, what else could they do to appease you?

If you see a double entendre there, you're reading it wrong. It's plain English. Developers/publishers can choose their markets. Valve isn't forcing them into the Chinese market, nor are they creating any of the problems you see stemming from this expansion.

Your gripes about censorship and virtual currency farming are really off topic. I don't know how you got there from Valve's supposed hostility towards Linux.

I gave two examples, have you looked at either of them? Their github for example?

The story is about their hardware survey, and a contentious one at that.

The article is about the hardware survey, but your replies are decidedly not. In fact I'm having trouble following your train of thought. Might just be me.

In any case, believe or not, I'm not a big fan of Valve and their business model despite being a somewhat reluctant customer. I've said it many times before on these forums. But what got me into this conversation was your rant about them "catering to Chinese users". Whether they put enough effort towards Linux is another matter. Depends on what you expected from them.

... What? No seriously, what is your point? I never said they had to do anything, where are you getting this from? You replied originally

"Catering to Chinese users" is damn good business. You make it sound like they're doing it to spite us.

At no point did I say Valve or anyone else had to further restrict access. My point was the survey numbers are inflated.

What I replied to and quoted in my post was "Catering to Chinese users for inflated user numbers is not the 'wae'." That implies they're doing it specifically to inflate the numbers, doesn't it? I did not intend to address anything else you might have written or implied.

If you see a double entendre there, you're reading it wrong. It's plain English. Developers/publishers can choose their markets. Valve isn't forcing them into the Chinese market, nor are they creating any of the problems you see stemming from this expansion.

I don't know what you're talking here dude. The entendre was your referring to developers as "not victims here". I don't think you understood what I said but are continuing to attack it anyway.

Attacking, really? I thought this was a discussion, not a fight. And I should know if I intend something as a double entendre or not. Your opinion doesn't really matter there.

Oh I quite agree, it is you.

I guess I don't speak devnull then. Try being more coherent next time.

In any case, believe or not, I'm not a big fan of Valve and their business model despite being a somewhat reluctant customer. I've said it many times before on these forums. But what got me into this conversation was your rant about them "catering to Chinese users". Whether they put enough effort towards Linux is another matter. Depends on what you expected from them.

There was no rant. Don't believe I even said they were against Linux specifically. You can of course continue to read into whatever you want to
fit your own narrative.

Now you're getting unnecessarily defensive. But I see this conversation isn't going anywhere, so let's just leave it.