After some recent weirdness where March saw a big drop, the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for May 2023 is now showing the Linux share at a multi-year high.
Checking back over our Steam Tracker where we're keeping tabs on it over time, we've not seen the Linux user share being as high as it is right now in at least 6 years. The Linux user share is now on 1.47% with macOS on 2.39% and Windows at 96.14%,
When filtering the results over to just Linux here's the current most popular distributions for Steam gaming:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit 25.32% + 2.55%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 9.99% + 0.20%
- Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS 64 bit 9.72% - 1.12%
- Freedesktop.org SDK 22.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 7.27% - 0.34%
- Manjaro Linux 64 bit 5.79% - 0.46%
- Linux Mint 21.1 64 bit 5.46% + 0.49%
- Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 3.53% - 0.33%
- Other 32.92% - 0.98%
In terms of absolute numbers we can take an educated guess here based on the last time Valve gave out their monthly active users, which they said was 132 million back in March 2022. So based on that 1.47% it would mean around 1,940,400 estimated monthly active users for Linux. However, Valve did not give out the number for the past year, and we know Steam is growing all the time, so in reality it's probably much higher.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
It's also good to see that Flatpak Steam is so widely used. :-)
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ZlopezIt's also good to see that Flatpak Steam is so widely used. :-)
Why? The reason for Flatpak that I'm aware of is getting newer software, but Steam is updating itself...
4 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Jun 2, 2023
1 940 000 x 25.32%... 500k Steam Decks? Where are the others? Didn't Valve sold over one million units already (Projected 3 millions by the end of the year)?
Did Steam grew 3X since that 132millions? I doubt that...
Did Steam grew 3X since that 132millions? I doubt that...
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Mohandevir1 940 000 x 25.32%... 500k Steam Decks? Where are the others? Didn't Valve sold over one million units already (Projected 3 millions by the end of the year)?It’s daily active, not overall numbers and as the article notes even that number is a year old.
Did Steam grew 3X since that 132millions? I doubt that...
4 Likes, Who?
Again, about my experience: playing on linux 80% of my time, switching for some games on my windows session for ~20%. I'm a gamer: playing nearly 2 to 3h per days. This was the exactly 12th time last month, since 2012 (I begun to count), that Steam asks me my config stuff while I'm on my windows session. Was only asked on linux one time while being on my laptop during a trip abroad (I nearly play around 10 days per year on my laptop, always when moving from house).
I'm a probabilist for my job, this succession of events are uneven. Steam MUST ask users to declare their prefered plateform at some point, before (to be sure to be surveyed when on this machine) or during the survey at least, especially considering that it matters for the market.
Last edited by Geppeto35 on 2 June 2023 at 2:03 pm UTC
I'm a probabilist for my job, this succession of events are uneven. Steam MUST ask users to declare their prefered plateform at some point, before (to be sure to be surveyed when on this machine) or during the survey at least, especially considering that it matters for the market.
Last edited by Geppeto35 on 2 June 2023 at 2:03 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Mohandevir1 940 000 x 25.32%... 500k Steam Decks? Where are the others? Didn't Valve sold over one million units already (Projected 3 millions by the end of the year)?
Did Steam grew 3X since that 132millions? I doubt that...
just because someone has a steam deck, does not mean, that they are not playing on WINDOWS PC anymore
so a lot of deck owners count as windows PC
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: mylkajust because someone has a steam deck, does not mean, that they are not playing on WINDOWS PC anymoreIt's a hardware survey, not a user survey. The Deck counts as a Deck, a Windows PC counts as a Windows PC and a Linux PC counts as a Linux PC.
so a lot of deck owners count as windows PC
6 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Jun 2, 2023
Quoting: Liam DaweQuoting: Mohandevir1 940 000 x 25.32%... 500k Steam Decks? Where are the others? Didn't Valve sold over one million units already (Projected 3 millions by the end of the year)?It’s daily active, not overall numbers and as the article notes even that number is a year old.
Did Steam grew 3X since that 132millions? I doubt that...
Aaah! Thank you for correcting me. Missed that nuance.
Edit: 132 millions of monthly active users... Wow! I thought that number was the number of active accounts.
Last edited by Mohandevir on 2 June 2023 at 3:01 pm UTC
0 Likes
40% of Linux gamers on Steam are Arch based, with the growth of SteamOS I can see that passing 50% by the end of the year. Kinda crazy but neat to see the rise of Arch.
The overall Linux growth is looking real healthy, I'm convinced more and more will consider switching their desktop machines to Linux after using the Steam Deck.
The overall Linux growth is looking real healthy, I'm convinced more and more will consider switching their desktop machines to Linux after using the Steam Deck.
4 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Geppeto35Steam MUST ask users to declare their prefered plateform at some pointJust for the record, my preferred plateform is flat. Other kinds of plates may look cool, but they're too hard to use and clean.
12 Likes, Who?
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me