Here's an interesting way to look at how the amount of Linux users on Steam has changed over time, when looking at the amount of daily active users.
Using a similar method to the one made by user dmantione who submitted this article to us back in May of 2016, which looked at peak users. A user on reddit has taken a look at the Linux market share against Valve's reported daily active users, using data they gave out during a recent presentation.
Here's the image it references (credit):
So we have about 12 million in April 2014, 25 million in April 2016 and 42 million in April 2018. Using the figures for the Steam market share given out by the Hardware Survey then, we get:
- April 2014 - Linux 1.26% - 151,200
- April 2016 - Linux 0.90% - 225,000
- April 2018 - Linux 0.55% - 231,000
That's daily active Linux users, not overall Linux users.
While this should of course be taken with a pinch of salt, it's still quite interesting if it's even remotely close to what's happening. While it has increased going by that data, it does look like the Linux user base on Steam is close to stagnating as growth has slowed down quite a lot in more recent years.
The Hardware Survey from August 2017 up until April 2018 had a counting flaw, which had cyber cafes using Windows 7 in Asia being over-counted. Valve say they fixed it, so it should mean the April 2018 number is actually correct.
Note: We originally said the counting flaw might have affected it, this was wrong (since it's fixed and we're using the overall number) and we have corrected the text—blame a lack of coffee and hot weather.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
It means I might never again allow myself to talk about Linux market share on Steam. I'm surprisingly okay with that.
Basically, has the increase in Linux users over time kept up with the increases in costs required to port games to that platform? I would suggest that it hasn't, and the proof is that the number of "big" titles we see has slowed down markedly since the Valve push a few years ago.
Personally, I'm not particularly fazed by this as I think things like Wine/DXVK/Lutris are becoming attractive enough for a lot of Windows users who are either interested in Linux or dislike Windows enough to make the switch, which will increase our market share. We also know Valve is still investing in the Linux ecosystem, and might be planning something to give the platform a push in the future.
The barrier to entry to switch to Linux for gaming is lower than ever before; I think we're still in a good spot all things considered.
Quoting: KuJoAs I said on reddit (hello again swick, my biggest fan). It's a literal fact that 151 to 231 is an increase. The title is factual for the data.Quoting: muellLiterally stagnation for two years and the headline is 'The amount of Linux users on Steam has increased when going by daily active users'. So you're really doing this on purpose, are you?It´s not literal stagnation. The absolute number of players has increased. Although the increase is not overwhelming.
Quoting: Luke_NukemIf Linux gamer growth had kept pace with Windows growth then percentage wouldn't have gone down. This does show that growth hadn't reversed at least.
One of the main reason, that Windows based user grew so much, is that Steam started selling in China.
GustyGhost Jul 9, 2018
Quoting: GuestJust to add, that is just Steam. We're still not counting Linux users from GOG, Itch, and Humble Store.
For some reason I cannot favorite (or have I been banned from "liking" comments?) so: [Liked]
Quoting: GustyGhostWe dont have a feature to ban people from liking stuff, it's usually an issue with privacy plugins.Quoting: GuestJust to add, that is just Steam. We're still not counting Linux users from GOG, Itch, and Humble Store.
For some reason I cannot favorite (or have I been banned from "liking" comments?) so: [Liked]
GustyGhost Jul 9, 2018
Quoting: liamdaweWe dont have a feature to ban people from liking stuff, it's usually an issue with privacy plugins.
Confirmed. It seems the page doesn't agree me blocking facebook, youtube and twitter. It's no problem really, I will just forego the feature.
Quoting: GustyGhostIt's not really an essential feature anyway :)Quoting: liamdaweWe dont have a feature to ban people from liking stuff, it's usually an issue with privacy plugins.
Confirmed. It seems the page doesn't agree me blocking facebook, youtube and twitter. It's no problem really, I will just forego the feature.
Assuming that an average user would buy a full-price title every 4 or 6 month, having 3 or 4 Feral ports a year seems just about fine for the current Linux user base. Having more title seems not feasible.
Last edited by jens on 9 July 2018 at 9:59 pm UTC
I wonder if we can use this older ratio of ~67:33 monthly active players to daily active users. If we can then we get about 304,000(2014), 456,000(2016), 469,000(2018) active users, but this assumes we have the same usage pattern as in 2017.
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