I waited a bit longer than usual on this, since last time Valve adjusted their numbers from positive to negative for the Linux market share. It seems as of last month, the Linux market share on Steam went up a bit. You can see them on Steam here.
When I say "went up", I don't mean we actually increased. Well, we did, but we're still not at the levels we were before PUBG's (PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS) release on Steam. Anyway…the January 2018 market share on Steam for Linux was 0.41% (+ 0.15%).
That's certainly better than a continual downward trend that we had been seeing, but as I said in a previous article on this, I fully expect it to bounce around until the incredible interest around games like PUBG subsides.
I've gone and updated my previous charts to highlight what's been happening for those interested. First up, the Linux market share on Steam just by itself to see what's been happening recently.
Now, to get some perspective on why the sudden drop, take a look at the choice of languages on Steam, the battle for the most used language.
Finally, here's a look at what would happen if we took out Simplified Chinese as a language and when we look at just English as a language in relation to the Linux market share on Steam.
You might have questions as to what's going on for January to bounce back a little, well, it could be a simple case of "1,044,000" PUBG players being banned by BattlEye.
I know many of you question the validity of the numbers from the Steam Hardware Survey, but as far as Valve are concerned they're accurate. Here's what a Valve developer said about them about a year ago:
Actually, the real login numbers are usually a bit lower than the reported survey numbers due to the noise of random distribution. The system works as intended.
Just something to think about, for all the people who think it's unfair in some way.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: michaWasn't there a huge PUBG ban wave? ;-)It's mentioned in the article...
GustyGhost Feb 7, 2018
QuoteThe survey is pointless anyway since Valve does not mention the sample size.
QuoteIn my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).
Firstly, it can only count those who have steam accounts. Not all Linux users have steam.
Secondly its numbers are way out of sync with everywhere else... 0.2%? Almost all other places rate us at 1-2% range.
Quote...As I said, we should just ignore this "random" survey garbage.
If it doesn't matter to you when it's going down, then why does it matter when it's going up?
Last edited by GustyGhost on 7 February 2018 at 3:07 pm UTC
Quoting: GustyGhostSome of your quotes from when that percentage was trending downward:The first quote is from "bintsmok".
QuoteThe survey is pointless anyway since Valve does not mention the sample size.
QuoteIn my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).
Firstly, it can only count those who have steam accounts. Not all Linux users have steam.
Secondly its numbers are way out of sync with everywhere else... 0.2%? Almost all other places rate us at 1-2% range.
Quote...As I said, we should just ignore this "random" survey garbage.
If it doesn't matter to you when it's going down, then why does it matter when it's going up?
The second quote is from "BlackBloodRum".
The last quote is from "no_information_here".
None of them are from me, all those comments are from here, see for yourself.
Edit: I see you decided to make it clearer now with your own edit ;)
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 7 February 2018 at 3:08 pm UTC
slaapliedje Feb 7, 2018
The survey on Linux is not a myth :->
I even attached my HTC Vive before completing the survey, so that was also taken into account ^^
The one major thing I take from the data lately is simple: Chinese people don't use Linux. It would be good if something were done about that.
Would be nice to know which is the spent average on buying games for each tier. I have the theory that a great percent of the Windows accounts are just dummy accounts or F2P.
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