Well it finally happened. According to the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey for July 2023 we can see that Linux users have overtaken macOS.
For July 2023 the rankings overall are:
- Windows 96.21% -0.56%
- macOS 1.84% +0.05%
- Linux 1.96% +0.52%
As shown on our dedicated Steam Tracker here's the Linux user share on Steam over time:
A pretty massive increase and the biggest in a single month for years. So why? Well, considering Valve just recently had a huge sale on the Steam Deck, it's probably not all that surprising. A lot of people over the last month will have been playing with their Steam Deck that ships with SteamOS Linux. So I do expect it to go down a fair bit next month as things settle down again but I imagine it will continue trending higher overall and keep pushing upwards.
Here's the current most popular Linux distributions - showing that SteamOS (Steam Deck) is the clear winner:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit 42.07% +2.74%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 7.94% -0.39%
- Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS 64 bit 7.38% -0.49%
- Freedesktop.org SDK 22.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 5.99% -0.03%
- "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 4.29% -0.08%
- Linux Mint 21.1 64 bit 3.84% -0.71%
- Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.97% +2.97%
- Other 25.52% -4.02%
What do you think to this news? Let us know in the comments.
See all the details on Valve's survey.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Well, historically speaking every substantial deviation from the trend stemmed from flawed data and was typically corrected before long... but I'll take it. :)
8 Likes, Who?
Must have been me. Got the survey twice last month. First on the deck, the second time on the desktop.
6 Likes, Who?
Well, historically speaking every substantial deviation from the trend stemmed from flawed data and was typically corrected before long... but I'll take it. :)
Phoronix observed that Chinese language has dropped by 3 or 4 percent last month...
2 Likes, Who?
Well, historically speaking every substantial deviation from the trend stemmed from flawed data and was typically corrected before long... but I'll take it. :)
Phoronix observed that Chinese language has dropped by 3 or 4 percent last month...
This won't make Linux jump up 25%.
(See the MacOs numbers, that went up a mere 2.7% (= 0.05 / 1,79).)
Last edited by Eike on 2 August 2023 at 11:11 am UTC
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Well, historically speaking every substantial deviation from the trend stemmed from flawed data and was typically corrected before long... but I'll take it. :)
It does look as plausible as the March numbers, yes.
But the trend is still going in the right direction.
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legluondunet Aug 2, 2023
It should happened, Apple is not actually a good platform for gaming.
They missed the Vulkan turn and isolated themselves with their exotic graphics specs.
They missed the Vulkan turn and isolated themselves with their exotic graphics specs.
3 Likes, Who?
mr-victory Aug 2, 2023
How time flies... When were we celebrating reaching %1.00, 2021?
Last edited by mr-victory on 2 August 2023 at 11:31 am UTC
Spoiler, click me
It was July 21. Weird thing is that it happened before I signed up here, 2 months ago.
Last edited by mr-victory on 2 August 2023 at 11:31 am UTC
1 Likes, Who?
spacemonkey Aug 2, 2023
Maybe there's an error in the Pop!_OS data. It is 2.97% of Linux users and gained 2.97%, meaning it was 0% previous month.. Does not seem correct to me.
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Maybe there's an error in the Pop!_OS data. It is 2.97% of Linux users and gained 2.97%, meaning it was 0% previous month.. Does not seem correct to me.It always does that on the Linux-specific data when they start showing a distro. Pop wasn't listed last month. It's odd but it does it any time a "new" distro appears in the list.
6 Likes, Who?
Finally I can start using "You have a Mac build but not a Linux build even though it has a larger market share" as an argument to convince devs to support Linux 
24 Likes, Who?
StalePopcorn Aug 2, 2023
…even less reason to port to macOS, save for Apple throwing a couple of bucks at devs for exclusivity so Apple can feign interest in end users.
3 Likes, Who?
Finally I can start using "You have a Mac build but not a Linux build even though it has a larger market share" as an argument to convince devs to support Linux
They will simply reply Linux is still a pain in the ass to support due to differences between distros, regardless of its marginally higher market share.
7 Likes, Who?
Interesting times! And even if this is only a brief jump due to the sale, it's still a good sign of where things are going. 
Must have been me. Got the survey twice last month. First on the deck, the second time on the desktop.I got the survey three times yesterday, so there's three separate Linux boxes for this month's survey.
1 Likes, Who?
Nateman1000 Aug 2, 2023
LINUX IS POPPING OFF! I WAS DEFINITELY NOT EXPECTING A WHOLE HALF PERCENT GAIN!
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Tobias_Hudelist Aug 2, 2023
Pop OS is really getting popular and I can really understand why!
If they make the Cosmic Desktop standalone it may get even more popular than its Mother Gnome eventually...
If they make the Cosmic Desktop standalone it may get even more popular than its Mother Gnome eventually...
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…even less reason to port to macOS, save for Apple throwing a couple of bucks at devs for exclusivity so Apple can feign interest in end users.The main reason against it is that Apple spends a lot of time making it harder to support macOS.
2 Likes, Who?
Must have been me. Got the survey twice last month. First on the deck, the second time on the desktop.Same here, I upgraded my boot drive and reinstalled Steam = got a survey, switched to Beta on my steam deck = got a survey, logged into steam on my laptop = got a steam survey. I can't remember the last time I got so many surveys together.
2 Likes, Who?
A pretty massive increase and the biggest in a single month for years. So why? Well, considering Valve just recently had a huge sale on the Steam Deck, it's probably not all that surprising. A lot of people over the last month will have been playing with their Steam Deck that ships with SteamOS Linux.But Liam can that really be the reason, I might be wrong but I thought you wouldn't get surveyed on the Deck for the initial few months or so?
Also I got a Deck as well and I wasnt (at least actively) surveyed 🤔
Well anyway nice news though I expect a drop next month as well, it will be interesting to see if it swings back to "normal" or if it can at least keep parts of that share.
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Aug 2, 2023
There was an announcement for Asahi Linux switching to Fedora. I am hoping my m1 macbook can be converted to a Linux machine soon!
3 Likes, Who?
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