A look at the top 100 Steam games on Linux - January 2022 edition

If you use a tool like ProtonUp-Qt (AppImage), the time it takes to install Proton GE is reduced to essentially your download speed for ~400 MB and a few seconds for the automated installtion.
This awesome tool supports downloading and installing many other things for Steam/Heroic/Lutris as well, Proton-GE, Lutris-Wine, Luxtorpeda to name but a few.

From that list, I own around 10% of the games, and probably have not heard about 40% of the others, and not interested in the rest. It's becoming easier for people like me xD

76%? Not good enough, it must be 100% or Linux fails! FAILS!

Sorry, my sarcasm gland is throbbing something fierce over here.

Between a certain video series and a well known Linux Youtuber telling people not to game on Linux I am a little grumpy. I understand criticisms, but I prefer a "here's what you must know" format to a "don't do it unless you are weird" type attitude, especially when they set unrealistically high bars*

* unrealistically high if you are high jumping, or unrealistically low if you are limbo dancing

Halo Infinite depends on DirectX 12 API calls that Vulkan does not have an equivalent for (yet), so there's nothing Valve can do with VKD3D unless they start funding Vulkan development, which is unfortunate. I'm sure it's not the only new game on this list like that. On the other hand, from what I've played of the multiplayer and heard of the campaign...I'm not sure I even want to play it. I do want Halo: MCC to use a version of EAC that supports Proton, though.

76%? Not good enough, it must be 100% or Linux fails! FAILS!

Sorry, my sarcasm gland is throbbing something fierce over here.

Between a certain video series and a well known Linux Youtuber telling people not to game on Linux I am a little grumpy. I understand criticisms, but I prefer a "here's what you must know" format to a "don't do it unless you are weird" type attitude, especially when they set unrealistically high bars*

* unrealistically high if you are high jumping, or unrealistically low if you are limbo dancing

My opinions are mixed. On the one hand, setting people up with high expectations is historically a bad idea because it doesn't end well for anyone, with animosity on all sides. But saying that GNU/Linux is DOA as a gaming platform is a bizarre take to me. For one thing, it really depends on what games you play. And for another, it has a library many times larger than any singular gaming console—and that's if you just count the Steam games. If, however, gaming is a social exercise for you, you're likely not going to be able to play games with your friends frequently. And it's not the only issue.

Coaxing eroge into functioning on GNU/Linux is an exercise in frustration I wouldn't recommend lightly, for instance. And when I finally do get them working, what I wouldn't give to be able to fullscreen some of these games without them crashing...800x640 resolution is not fun. If you're the type of person who mostly plays this genre of games, there's miles to go. Even if there's only really 2 or 3 DRM schemes blocking the way, my bet is that they're 10 years away from working in WINE, if they ever work at all.


Last edited by pleasereadthemanual on 4 January 2022 at 12:24 pm UTC

76%? Not good enough, it must be 100% or Linux fails! FAILS!

I see Linux as equivalent of console gaming. If you buy a PlayStation, you do not expect to be able to run XBox games. In the same way I fully realize that when running Linux I will not be able to play all Windows games, and that is fine.

The latest Call of Warfare does not run on Linux? Well, I am an adult with a full-time job, and a several hundred games backlog on Steam. By the time I will have time to even consider playing it, Call of Warfare 4 will be out, and I will still have hundreds of other games to choose from.

76%? Not good enough, it must be 100% or Linux fails! FAILS!

I see Linux as equivalent of console gaming. If you buy a PlayStation, you do not expect to be able to run XBox games. In the same way I fully realize that when running Linux I will not be able to play all Windows games, and that is fine.

The latest Call of Warfare does not run on Linux? Well, I am an adult with a full-time job, and a several hundred games backlog on Steam. By the time I will have time to even consider playing it, Call of Warfare 4 will be out, and I will still have hundreds of other games to choose from.

This isn't the same as PS Vs Xbox exclusives. If you buy a Steam based console you expect to be able to play everything in your Steam library

Why? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Then there is the thorny issue of games not on Steam which, again, millions are going to want to play. Gamers are going to be able to expect to download EA Origin, Uplay, Epic (most will not know about Heroic) and expect to be able to install it. Again it won't be Steam or the developers of those stores who get the blame.

Why would customers expect to be able to play non-Steam games on the Steam Deck? I don't buy an Xbox console expecting to play PlayStation games, or a Switch expecting to play Xbox games.

You can argue that Valve is setting up this expectation by talking about how open it is, and how the customer actually owns the product, but this isn't a normal expectation at all.

In fact, I wonder how these users would even stumble out of the Steam client mode and onto the "regular desktop" and then onto epicgames.com. It's not obvious to me, from the few videos I've seen on it.

It will be an unpopular opinion but Valve would have been better off shipping Windows on the Steam Deck out of the box and just not locking down the bootloader for anyone who wants to install linux.

That entirely depends on what Valve wants out of the Steam Deck. Most companies end up losing a lot of money on consoles anyway and make it back on the games and services.

Keep in mind that not all of these games would be playable on a Windows version of the Steam Deck, either. I can't imagine playing MapleStory or something like it on the Steam Deck; that would be painful. I think Valve really wants a platform—their own platform. Just like Microsoft wanted a Direct XBox, and Sony based their PlayStations on FreeBSD.

Ultimately, of course, the customer will decide if they want to be on that platform. Guess we'll find out next month.

Why? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Well, if you go to the website, they don't say anything about some of your games not working. They set up expectations to the contrary like:

Steam, without compromises

Your Steam library is already on your Deck.

Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favorites - exactly where you left them.

Why? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Well, if you go to the website, they don't say anything about some of your games not working. They set up expectations to the contrary like:

Steam, without compromises

Your Steam library is already on your Deck.

Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favorites - exactly where you left them.

And I still think it's really bad to market it like that, but the other side is...it's marketing, of course they're going to say that. The reality, as we all know, is different. Unless, they are hiding a number of Proton updates and have more anti-cheat stuff lined up.

Why? This makes no sense. If that is the expectation they are setting for your users then yes, but if they are telling people that "these 80% verified green tick games work" then you should not expect to run the other 20% and then complain about it.

Well, if you go to the website, they don't say anything about some of your games not working. They set up expectations to the contrary like:

Steam, without compromises

Your Steam library is already on your Deck.

Once you've logged into Steam Deck, your entire Steam Library shows up, just like any other PC. You'll be able to find your collections and favorites - exactly where you left them.

And I still think it's really bad to market it like that, but the other side is...it's marketing, of course they're going to say that. The reality, as we all know, is different. Unless, they are hiding a number of Proton updates and have more anti-cheat stuff lined up.

I don't begrudge them for it, I was simply challenging the argument that all customers know what they're getting into. We know the reality is different, but I have to wonder how many others don't.

On the other hand, of course, you are right. They have to come out strong with a product like this, not start putting doubts into customers' minds. I'm personally partial to CodeWeavers' marketing for CrossOver, but that's a $60 software product that you can trial. Not a $399 hunk of metal you have to ship back.

I've heard some strange rumors about Valve holding onto an "internal" version of Proton that is supposedly much different to what regular users have access to, but I've dismissed it as people misunderstanding something about ProtonDB.

Time will tell, I suppose.

I've heard some strange rumors about Valve holding onto an "internal" version of Proton that is supposedly much different to what regular users have access to, but I've dismissed it as people misunderstanding something about ProtonDB.

Valve 100% said they have Proton work that's not public, but we don't know if any of that has been released since. This was in a Steamworks video in July https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_C5KVJbUw

Valve is making a huge mistake though trusting game developers/publishers to just enable anticheat for Proton on their games. I still think hardly any of them will bother. Does not matter how easy Valve makes it.

Incredibly, the only games on that list I'd like to play, but can't, are Destiny 2 and Apex Legends. The former because I've played it on Stadia and generally enjoyed it, and the latter because I'd quite like to try it out for a bit, but probably wouldn't stick around.

And Icarus I suppose. I love 7D2D, so that could be an interesting title to try.

So I do really hope that the SteamDeck brings a bit of pressure to the big publishers to enable anti-cheat. The rest can be solved by wine/proton updates.

This list is actually worse than people realize lol. A lot of the work with Proton games only work on specific hardware and or distros.

I've been using Linux for over a decade and couldn't get AoE2's multiplayer to work for me. I also had issues with infinite mouse acceleration that others also experienced. But its simpler to ignore those people and pretend that the game 'just works' on proton. Similar issues with It Takes Two, it just would not install on Linux Mint. I read on ProtonDb it installs great on other distros but again we're living in fantasy land.

And no users are not even going to hit 70 percent of games bring playable IMO, its closer to 50 - 60 and even then some tweaks are required. Feels like we are setting newbies up like what happened with LTTs videos. They are going to realize how much of a headache it still is and be off put by Linux once again.

Imo we should temper expectations. And unless something PERFECTLY works across multiple distros and hardware writing 'Works with Proton' is extremely misleading and setting up new users for failure.

tayshady]This list is actually worse than people realize lol. A lot of the work with Proton games only work on specific hardware and or distros.

The list of games that only work on one GPU vendor is very short and I don't believe any in that list only work with one vendor. There's a couple we listed as Unstable pretty clearly and they are not included in the %.

tayshady]Similar issues with It Takes Two, it just would not install on Linux Mint.

Uh, if you're failing to even install something, I think there's bigger issues on your system ;)

tayshady]And no users are not even going to hit 70 percent of games bring playable IMO, its closer to 50 - 60 and even then some tweaks are required. Feels like we are setting newbies up like what happened with LTTs videos. They are going to realize how much of a headache it still is and be off put by Linux once again.

It will of course be different for everyone. This article is not a "you will see x amount", the article is very clearly targetting the top 100.

tayshady]Imo we should temper expectations. And unless something PERFECTLY works across multiple distros and hardware writing 'Works with Proton' is extremely misleading and setting up new users for failure.

There is no such thing as perfect, never will be. You can literally never account for every single random piece of hardware or distribution run by users. It's exactly the same for Windows and how some people can't get x game working. There is no misleading because random Joe couldn't get some random game working on their random distribution they found on some outdated list somewhere.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 January 2022 at 2:18 pm UTC

Uh, if you're failing to even install something, I think there's bigger issues on your system ;)

Look IDC if you want to be defensive about an operating system and it's game comptability. You chalk it off to some obscure hardware or something, I'm running official and up to date Nvidia graphics drivers on a 3070 Ti and on Linux Mint 20.2...one of the most popular distros right now.

The fact of the matter is if you did ANY type of research into what I just said, simply pulling up the ProtonDB page for It Takes Two for instance, you would've seen that people with Linux Mint are unable to get the game to run.

There is no such thing as perfect, never will be. You can literally never account for every single random piece of hardware or distribution run by users. It's exactly the same for Windows and how some people can't get x game working. There is no misleading because random Joe couldn't get some random game working on their random distribution they found on some outdated list somewhere.

Yes there is, when it works for 90+% of users of any type of distro I'd consider that perfect. I'm under a strong impression that most of what is listed as 'Just works' does not work for 90+% of Linux users right now. That's the sad reality, maybe half of what you listed will actually 'Just work'.

That's how it is in Windows, that's the reality. It's not a guessing game on your hardware and what version Windows update you're running. Again you're setting up for more LTTs and your defensiveness shows that we have a long way to go as the community.

Imagine if we had instead of boasting about Linux and how 80% of the top 100 games work, we tempered expectation and were realistic about Linux's game compatability, I guarantee that LTT video would look a lot different right now.


Last edited by [Linux] tayshady on 4 January 2022 at 2:48 pm UTC

Valve is making a huge mistake though trusting game developers/publishers to just enable anticheat for Proton on their games. I still think hardly any of them will bother. Does not matter how easy Valve makes it.

What exactly do you propose as an alternative? Valve can't put working-on-Linux anti-cheat into other developer's games. They can't de-list games that don't work on Linux, since for all the strategic importance that Linux gaming has for Valve almost all of their money comes from Windows gamers. They can't ban anti-cheat from Steam and make the choice into put your game on Steam and have a load of cheaters, or put your game onto the store of an anti-cheat vendor and don't. Valve did succeed in encouraging developers to make native Linux games, but they couldn't entice the majority, and those games didn't have anti-cheat despite native anti-cheat having worked for years.

The carrot of making it really easy to do and the stick of not having the exposure of being on a highly desirable device are the tools that they have available to them.

tayshady]Look IDC if you want to be defensive about an operating system and it's game comptability. You chalk it off to some obscure hardware or something, I'm running official and up to date Nvidia graphics drivers on a 3070 Ti and on Linux Mint 20.2...one of the most popular distros right now.

No one is being defensive here, except perhaps you? I can't say I've ever had an issue installing a game through Steam. It really is the most basic feature. Did you open a bug report? Can we see it?

tayshady]Yes there is, when it works for 90+% of users of any type of distro I'd consider that perfect. I'm under a strong impression that most of what is listed as 'Just works' does not work for 90+% of Linux users right now. That's the sad reality, maybe half of what you listed will actually 'Just work'.

So pure conjecture based on feelings by the sounds of it.

tayshady]That's how it is in Windows, that's the reality. It's not a guessing game on your hardware and what version Windows update you're running. Again you're setting up for more LTTs and your defensiveness shows that we have a long way to go as the community.

Again, not being defensive. You can't hide a lack of an argument by claiming someone is being defensive. It's weird.

tayshady]Imagine if we had instead of boasting about Linux and how 80% of the top 100 games work, we tempered expectation and were realistic about Linux's game compatability, I guarantee that LTT video would look a lot different right now.

This is a realistic look, based on thousands of reports across many distributions and hardware combinations. Those that don't work say so, those that are unstable say so, those that "just work" for the majority say so.

Honestly, your posts just come across as a disgruntled user who couldn't get something working so thinks that's the case for most people.

Anybody have some recent experience with Red Dead Redemption 2? Looking to get it this year. :)

tayshady]The fact of the matter is if you did ANY type of research into what I just said, simply pulling up the ProtonDB page for It Takes Two for instance, you would've seen that people with Linux Mint are unable to get the game to run.

If it works for everyone else but doesn't work on Mint, that's a Mint problem. You can see that, right?