Yacht Club Games have announced that Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove [Official Site] has officially sold 2 million copies, with Linux accounting for 1.1% of Steam sales. It's great to see another success story for an indie developer, as that's a pretty healthy amount of sales, especially considering the amount of competition when it comes to this type of game.
In their announcement, they actually left out Linux statistics completely (likely due to how small it is). So I reached out to the developer to ask about Steam sales with Linux being included and they allowed me to share this with you:
So that's Windows: 93.5%, Mac: 5.4% and Linux at 1.1%.
It is worth noting, that the Linux version was released several months after the Windows version, so it's possible a few sales would have been lost there. We know a timely release does affect Linux sales, with people running games in Wine or loading up a Windows install for some games (something I read about people doing quite often).
Also, when comparing PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) to other platforms, Windows itself only sold 24.4% of the copies with 3DS coming in hot at 23.9%.
Don't own it yet and want to boost their Linux sales a little or just fancy giving it a go? You can grab Shovel Knight on Humble Store, GOG and Steam. Note: Humble and GOG links are affiliate links.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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loading up a Windows install for some games (something I read about people doing quite often).
For every game that looks like it's Windows-only, I first try to see if there is/will be a Linux version soon (say, 3-4 months max). If there is, I happily wait. If not, I boot into Windows 7 that I keep specifically for this reason.
While I appreciate the efforts of Feral et al. even their announcements (let alone the actual port) tend to come many months, if not years after the Windows release (just look at the latest Tomb Raider).
If I were to wait forever just for the chance of an announcement I would have never experienced, say, Witcher 3 and I'm just not willing to do that.
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What I want to know, does Samsai's former copy still count as a Linux sale? :P
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The game wasn't to my taste, but I'm glad they released on Linux so I could try it.
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That means about 5,000 copies on Linux (1.1% of 24.4% of 2M).
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I'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).
Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 3:01 pm UTC
Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 3:01 pm UTC
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Beta Version Apr 12, 2018
Bought it on GOG, so i guess i'm not in these 1.1%.
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I know this isn't a presise formula, I just wanted to get an approximate number. I know maths. The right calculations are:
1. Windows sales are 24.4% of 2M ⇒ 2M × 24.4% = 488,000;
2. That's 93.5% of overall PC sales which are 488,000 ÷ 93.5% = 521,925 copies;
3. Linux sales are 1.1% of this number, so it's 521,925 × 1.1% = 5,741.
Still close enough to 2M × 24.4% × 1.1% = 5,368.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:41 pm UTC
1. Windows sales are 24.4% of 2M ⇒ 2M × 24.4% = 488,000;
2. That's 93.5% of overall PC sales which are 488,000 ÷ 93.5% = 521,925 copies;
3. Linux sales are 1.1% of this number, so it's 521,925 × 1.1% = 5,741.
Still close enough to 2M × 24.4% × 1.1% = 5,368.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:41 pm UTC
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his math is right, the number should be correct.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:42 pm UTC
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:42 pm UTC
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Decided to remove my other replies to keep it clean, totally tired and staring at code didn't help my math obviously :P
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:42 pm UTC
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 April 2018 at 3:42 pm UTC
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I'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).I wouldn't take it for granted. If support for older games or software was a concern for macOS users, the switch to OS X or Intel CPUs would have driven much more users away. Instead, when something can't run any longer, Mac users tend to upgrade their hardware, or software, or both.
For example, when OS X 10.2 was released, Apple ended OS 9 support. At the time, the standard in desktop publishing was QarkXpress running on Macintosh computers. When Quark failed to deliver an OS X version, Adobe just stepped in with InDesign. People just switched to OS X + InDesign, which in most cases meant new hardware + an InDesign licence, as OS X was much more demanding than OS 9.
Another example, as a result of the abandon of Mac OS Classic emulation because of the switch to Intel, people couldn't run OS 9 games any longer. Yet, they happily bought Intel-based Mac rigs. So how did they run their favourite games? They started to run the Windows versions... On Wine. I'd bet they'll keep doing this with 32bits-only games.
Because Apple saw this strategy of endlessly breaking compatibility in order to make people upgrade more often works, they just keep doing it. It allowed them to survive as a company, as many companies never bought hardware, because their Mac just kept working great, years after years. But on the other hand it drove away a tiny bit of their user base, which includes, well, me. But that's not the case for the large majority of their user base, and when people started to buy iPhones, it even expanded some more.
Last edited by omer666 on 12 April 2018 at 4:39 pm UTC
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hardpenguin Apr 12, 2018
I'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).macOS has nearly 20% of market share in USA (according to StatCounter), which is the biggest regional market on Steam among paying customers (according to SteamSpy).
Sources:
http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america
https://galyonk.in/steam-in-2017-129c0e6be260
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GustyGhost Apr 12, 2018
I'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).
Being a 2D game, SK has more appeal to those running mac hardware with integrated Intel graphics and the like. I am certain those sales figures already skew differently for graphically demanding games like Tomb Raider. Anybody got stats on these?
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So how did they run their favourite games? They started to run the Windows versions... On Wine. I'd bet they'll keep doing this with 32bits-only games.
Except that Wine relies on 32-bit libraries (and kernel support) to run 32-bit games. So if Apple will bork it in macOS, Wine won't run any 32-bit games there either if I understand correctly. So it would be some incentive for them to switch to Linux. That already in some way happened, when Apple stopped updating OpenGL there.
Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 6:16 pm UTC
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Goes to show though, even if Steam says we're at 0.001% of users we can still count for a larger number of sales than our expected userbase.
So yes, we're only 0.001% but we can still add that 1.1% (more or less depending on game) to a games sales. That's still extra money for the developers whichever way you spin it.
What would be interesting is to see statistics on a big game ported by Aspyr like DiRT Rally (epic game) and where we would stand on a game like that.
The numbers must be OK because codemasters have let them port a few games now.
Aspyr, care to help? :-D
So yes, we're only 0.001% but we can still add that 1.1% (more or less depending on game) to a games sales. That's still extra money for the developers whichever way you spin it.
What would be interesting is to see statistics on a big game ported by Aspyr like DiRT Rally (epic game) and where we would stand on a game like that.
The numbers must be OK because codemasters have let them port a few games now.
Aspyr, care to help? :-D
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So how did they run their favourite games? They started to run the Windows versions... On Wine. I'd bet they'll keep doing this with 32bits-only games.
Except that Wine relies on 32-bit libraries (and kernel support) to run 32-bit games. So if Apple will bork it in macOS, Wine won't run any 32-bit games there either if I understand correctly. So it would be some incentive for them to switch to Linux. That already in some way happened, when Apple stopped updating OpenGL there.
My mistake, you are completely right. Yet I still doubt Apple dropping 32bit would change a thing for them anyway. Soon they will be able to play the wonderful iPhone games they've been longing for, thanks to the unification of iOS and macOS apps.
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but i got it for free, as usually is the case with steamplay games,linux/wintel/mac in one go.is there a way on steam to choose only one system? i see this as great bonus btw,got lots of linux games because of steamplay to go thru now.
Last edited by frakswe on 12 April 2018 at 8:17 pm UTC
Last edited by frakswe on 12 April 2018 at 8:17 pm UTC
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but i got it for free, as usually is the case with steamplay games,linux/wintel/mac in one go.is there a way on steam to choose only one system?You can choose which platforms to show on your store front page in your account preferences, and you can filter your games per platform in your library. Is either of those what you mean?
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nah i just wonder what counts as a linux sale, in my case i bought the game when i was on wintel but got the linux version aswell in the same deal.that's what "steamplay" refers to.
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nah i just wonder what counts as a linux sale, in my case i bought the game when i was on wintel but got the linux version aswell in the same deal.that's what "steamplay" refers to.
The concept of "sale" is quite moot here. More important is the concept of download. I.e. you are buying all versions at once. But when you download, you usually are getting one for your OS. So I suppose if you downloaded the Linux version, it should count as Linux download. I wonder what happens if you download all versions.
Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 9:30 pm UTC
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