To begin 2022, let's take a fresh look at the current top 100 Steam games and see how well (or not) the run on Linux.
As part of a series we shall be doing, where we first took a proper look at this back in October 2021, including games that are both Native to Linux and Windows games that are run through the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer. With help from ProtonDB reports to investigate.
Something to keep in mind is that while the top 5-10 games doesn't change too often on Steam, the rest do fluctuate quite a lot as it often depends on some of the bigger releases that appear. We are once again going by the numbers on SteamDB using their 24 hour peak-player count. Take this as your snapshot of how things are a month before the Steam Deck releases to see what you might expect to work or not.
Over time the compatibility is expected to increase thanks to native ports, more Windows-only games working with Steam Play Proton and now Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye have expanded their support.
| Name | 24 Hr Peak | Linux Status |
| Counter-Strike: Global Offensive | 802,899 | Linux Native |
| Dota 2 | 723,708 | Linux Native |
| PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS | 336,367 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Apex Legends | 216,295 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Grand Theft Auto V | 142,431 | Works with Proton |
| NARAKA: BLADEPOINT | 137,210 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Team Fortress 2 | 127,787 | Linux Native |
| Rust | 110,963 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| New World | 109,256 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Football Manager 2022 | 84,705 | Works with Proton |
| ARK: Survival Evolved | 84,566 | Linux Native and Works with Proton |
| Wallpaper Engine | 76,064 | Sort-of works with KDE Plasma |
| MIR4 | 70,919 | Broken |
| Warframe | 70,883 | Works with Proton |
| FIFA 22 | 70,373 | Works with Proton |
| The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | 70,072 | Works with Proton |
| Destiny 2 | 69,132 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege | 65,840 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| FINAL FANTASY XIV Online | 58,414 | Works with Proton |
| Project Zomboid | 57,533 | Linux Native |
| 7 Days to Die | 56,932 | Linux Native |
| Farming Simulator 22 | 55,657 | Works with Proton |
| Dead by Daylight | 55,320 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Terraria | 51,900 | Linux Native |
| Rocket League | 51,503 | Works with Proton* |
| DayZ | 49,610 | Works with Proton |
| Valheim | 48,871 | Linux Native |
| Sid Meier's Civilization VI | 48,626 | Linux Native |
| SUPER PEOPLE CBT | 48,160 | Broken |
| Halo Infinite | 47,576 | Broken |
| PAYDAY 2 | 46,869 | Linux Native |
| Euro Truck Simulator 2 | 46,764 | Linux Native |
| Unturned | 44,374 | Linux Native |
| World of Tanks Blitz | 43,230 | Works with Proton |
| Stardew Valley | 42,350 | Linux Native |
| Don't Starve Together | 40,850 | Linux Native |
| Hearts of Iron IV | 40,452 | Linux Native |
| Garry's Mod | 38,316 | Linux Native |
| War Thunder | 38,194 | Linux Native |
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition | 36,657 | Works with Proton |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 35,314 | Works with Proton |
| Sea of Thieves | 33,711 | Works with Proton* |
| Phasmophobia | 33,508 | Works with Proton* |
| Hunt: Showdown | 30,944 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| The Elder Scrolls Online | 28,763 | Works with Proton |
| Total War: WARHAMMER II | 28,718 | Linux Native |
| Left 4 Dead 2 | 28,591 | Linux Native |
| Monster Hunter: World | 28,102 | Works with Proton |
| The Sims 4 | 26,391 | Works with Proton |
| Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord | 25,881 | Works with Proton |
| Bloons TD 6 | 25,531 | Works with Proton |
| VRChat | 25,314 | Works with Proton |
| Europa Universalis IV | 24,501 | Linux Native |
| Black Desert | 24,149 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| 雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) | 23,854 | Works with Proton |
| The Forest | 23,626 | Works with Proton |
| Battlefield V | 23,484 | Works with Proton |
| F1 2021 | 23,351 | Unstable with Proton, has issues* |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 22,964 | Works with Proton |
| Satisfactory | 22,875 | Works with Proton |
| Sid Meier's Civilization V | 22,717 | Linux Native |
| Stellaris | 22,422 | Linux Native |
| RimWorld | 22,180 | Linux Native |
| The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | 22,077 | Linux Native* |
| Fallout 4 | 21,730 | Works with Proton |
| Cities: Skylines | 21,316 | Linux Native |
| DARK SOULS III | 21,295 | Works with Proton |
| Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition | 21,207 | Works with Proton* |
| tModLoader | 20,663 | Linux Native |
| Brawlhalla | 20,611 | Works with Proton* |
| Forza Horizon 4 | 20,608 | Unstable with Proton |
| It Takes Two | 20,595 | Works with Proton |
| NBA 2K22 | 20,079 | Works with Proton |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 19,778 | Unstable with Proton |
| Age of Empires IV | 19,775 | Unstable with Proton |
| Cookie Clicker | 19,163 | Works with Proton |
| SMITE | 18,911 | Works with Proton GE |
| Football Manager 2021 | 18,730 | Works with Proton |
| Arma 3 | 18,396 | Works with Proton |
| Crusader Kings III | 17,797 | Linux Native |
| 鬼谷八荒 Tale of Immortal | 17,579 | Works with Proton |
| Counter-Strike | 17,294 | Linux Native |
| Factorio | 16,278 | Linux Native |
| Icarus | 16,270 | Broken |
| Path of Exile | 15,741 | Works with Proton |
| Deep Rock Galactic | 15,648 | Works with Proton |
| Dying Light | 15,569 | Linux Native |
| Among Us | 15,061 | Works with Proton |
| Raft | 14,448 | Works with Proton |
| Ready or Not | 14,184 | Works with Proton |
| Battlefield 2042 | 14,174 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout | 13,949 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Oxygen Not Included | 13,912 | Linux Native |
| Divinity: Original Sin 2 | 13,693 | Works with Proton |
| SCUM | 13,672 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | 13,579 | Works with Proton |
| Soundpad | 13,568 | Broken |
| theHunter: Call of the Wild | 13,555 | Works with Proton |
| Conan Exiles | 13,532 | Broken (Anti-Cheat) |
| Gunfire Reborn | 13,205 | Works with Proton |
Notes:
- Proton GE refers to the community-built version of Proton. So while it requires adding it manually (which takes all of 5 minutes), it still works. This is sometimes needed for games where videos don't work with the official Proton. Valve is working on getting them all working out of the box with official Proton.
- Rocket League works but was removed from Steam for new players. However, it does work with Wine (which Proton is built from) if you use something like the Heroic Games Launcher to get it from Epic.
- Sea of Thieves voice comms don't work.
- Phasmophobia just recently seemed to fix the voice comms with Proton.
- We did not count Myth of Empires, as Steam delisted it due to ongoing legal troubles.
- F1 2021 had some fixes for AMD GPUs lately but still seem pretty problematic overall.
- The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is Linux Native, but the latest DLC is Windows-only but that does work with Proton.
- Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition works but online multiplayer can desync unless you do a small fix.
- Brawlhalla added EAC, which you can disable and they're trying to support Proton with it.
With not long to go until the Steam Deck releases, hopefully Valve still have a few releases of Proton to improve things further. Anti-Cheat continues to be the biggest hurdle for Linux gaming and the Steam Deck. We've not seen many titles at all enable it officially, with the current list being quite small. We do expect that to change if the Steam Deck is a success though, and we fully expect it to be - as long as Valve can get enough units produced.
A few false-flags have appeared over the last few months like Rainbox Six Siege suddenly working, however do remember that until Valve or the developer actually confirm it, they will likely (and it did) stop working due to the anti-cheat.
Personally, I've not been able to get DayZ to work myself (now it's supported) but I know plenty of others have. Even with the suggested fixes, I just get a black screen, which is a shame. In some ways Proton is still a bit of a minefield like that, hopefully a solution will be found.
The most important part — the numbers: we're currently seeing around 76% of the top 100 (based on peak player counts) as of January 2022 working on Linux with Native Linux games and Windows games in Proton taken together. So, things are looking pretty good ahead of the Steam Deck launch since it will use SteamOS 3 which is based on Arch Linux.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI'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
4 Likes, Who?
rustybroomhandle Jan 4, 2022
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.
3 Likes, Who?
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.
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.
0 Likes
[Linux] tayshady Jan 4, 2022
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.
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.
0 Likes
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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 %.
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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 ;)
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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.
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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
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[Linux] tayshady Jan 4, 2022
Quoting: Liam DaweUh, 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.
Quoting: Liam DaweThere 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
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Quoting: rustybroomhandleValve 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.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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?
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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.
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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.
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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.
6 Likes, Who?
officernice Jan 4, 2022
Anybody have some recent experience with Red Dead Redemption 2? Looking to get it this year. :)
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Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]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?
1 Likes, Who?
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