Linux hits a multi-year high for user share on Steam thanks to Steam Deck

Quoting: Geppeto35Again, 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.

Valve has no reason to _ask_ you about your platform they already know that because they have to serve you updates based that. That's ignoring all the other channels they could use to figure that out.

So while the hardware survey may not be accurate, pretty sure the platform usage data is.

Quoting: Mountain ManIt's somewhat disheartening that despite a big multi-year push from Valve, Linux still sits behind MacOS at less 1.5% market share.

It's OK, this was always going to be a marathon and not a sprint. The important thing is that Linux's marketshare is growing and as long as it maintains that direction, this can take as long as necessary.
2 years ago, MacOS was closer to 3%, and Linux was back at 0.8%. Now it's more like 1.5% vs 2.4%. We're much closer and still gaining ground.

Quoting: gradyvuckovic

Quoting: Mountain ManIt's somewhat disheartening that despite a big multi-year push from Valve, Linux still sits behind MacOS at less 1.5% market share.

It's OK, this was always going to be a marathon and not a sprint. The important thing is that Linux's marketshare is growing and as long as it maintains that direction, this can take as long as necessary.
2 years ago, MacOS was closer to 3%, and Linux was back at 0.8%. Now it's more like 1.5% vs 2.4%. We're much closer and still gaining ground.

Also while the percentage is relatively low, remember 1.5% market share now is many more people than a few years ago as the user base has grown considerably. I think the English tracker is more encouraging as we can see some big movement.

Quoting: Eike

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...

With Flatpak you can have the same stack on every distro and a very recent version of Mesa regardless of the distribution without compromising the system. You can transform Debian Stable into a gaming system without break anything.

On immutable systems like Silverblue, Kinoite and MicroOS (now Aeon and Kalpa) the Flatpak package makes a lot of sense.

Counting Steam Deck as Linux users is reminiscent of people trying to say Android device users count as Linux users. I bet the majority of people buying the Steam Deck don't know anything about Linux and don't care, they just want Steam on the go.

Wake me up when actual desktop Linux users reach a milestone that means something. I'd say 25%, but I'll settle for passing Mac desktop users in the meantime. I'll be surprised if either happens in my lifetime. Been waiting over 20 years already, no real sign anything is going to change.

Quoting: adolsonCounting Steam Deck as Linux users is reminiscent of people trying to say Android device users count as Linux users. I bet the majority of people buying the Steam Deck don't know anything about Linux and don't care, they just want Steam on the go.

No, it really isn't, for fundamental reasons both technical and strategic.

Starting from technical: Steam Decks use a fairly standard Linux distribution on which one can run normal Linux software. You can load LibreOffice or the GIMP or whatever onto SteamOS and they will run. SteamOS has a normal Linux kernel, a normal GNU toolchain, and a normal desktop environment (KDE). So technically, a Steam Deck user simply is a Linux user, whether they happen to realize it or not (lots of Windows users don't realize their OS is Windows). Android, on the other hand, has Linux kernel, but no GNU; it is Linux, but not GNU/Linux. And it won't run Linux software.

Moving on to strategic: Because the Steam Deck runs a fairly normal Linux distribution, most things, primarily but not exclusively games, that run on it will also run on desktop Linux. Because of that, they represent the same development target and market. So if my potential market has 1% desktop Linux users and 3% Steam Deck users, and I do the exact same things to target those two segments, they are in effect one segment of 4%. The likelihood of at least game software being made to target Linux does grow with the number of Steam Deck users, whereas it does not grow with the number of Android users.

In my opinion there is a knock-on effect from the games, in that if Linux is seen as a viable gaming platform, the chances of people adopting it for their desktop is higher.

Secondarily, the existence of the Steam Deck, running a fairly normal GNU/Linux distribution, also adds impetus to some aspects of Linux software development; companies like Valve have motivation to improve certain bits of Linux relating to graphics, KDE user experience, sound and so on.

So no, your parallel is false. Steam Deck users do represent Linux adoption in most important ways, whereas Android users do not.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 4 June 2023 at 5:37 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe likelihood of at least game software being made to target Linux does grow with the number of Steam Deck users

Time will tell. It's still early days, but so far, we're seeing the opposite effect due to Proton. Which, by the way, was the worry back in the Loki/LGP days (when I switched to Linux) with Wine/WineX and later on, Cedega.

QuoteIn my opinion there is a knock-on effect from the games, in that if Linux is seen as a viable gaming platform, the chances of people adopting it for their desktop is higher.

Indeed, that is just an opinion. I hope you're right, but again, time will tell.

QuoteSteam Deck users do represent Linux adoption

Not knowingly, in most cases, which was my point.

Again, this is all pretty theoretical at this point, and even with Steam Deck, the numbers are abysmal - as they have always been. I'm still not seeing anything to celebrate at this point in time.

I wouldn't say there's anything to celebrate yet either, but there are decent reasons to be cautiously optimistic for the future. Maybe we'll finally get to 2% market share on Steam next year.

Quoting: adolsonIt's still early days, but so far, we're seeing the opposite effect due to Proton.

No, we aren't. The release of Proton had no effect whatsoever on the proportion of Linux-native games that are released. The growth in the Linux market has since caused an increase in the proportion of Linux-native games that are released.

Quoting: adolson

Quoting: Purple Library GuyThe likelihood of at least game software being made to target Linux does grow with the number of Steam Deck users

Time will tell. It's still early days, but so far, we're seeing the opposite effect due to Proton. Which, by the way, was the worry back in the Loki/LGP days (when I switched to Linux) with Wine/WineX and later on, Cedega.

So, first, as CatKiller points out, we are not seeing the opposite effect. I myself assumed that Proton effect would exist, but it does not seem to be happening.

Second, that's a separate argument. Assume Proton reduces the chance of games being released for Linux. Market share still increases it--Linux with Proton at 10% would get more releases than Linux with Proton at 3%. And, the Steam Deck still represents Linux market share in the game market. So counting Steam Decks as Linux users still is not at all the same as counting Android users as Linux users. So even if this point were accurate (which, to my surprise, it does not seem to be), your original claim would still be wrong.