Linux user share on Steam breaks 2% thanks to Steam Deck

A moment I've no doubt many Linux fans have been waiting to see. The Linux user share on Steam has smashed through the 2% barrier.

Not actually for the first time though, it did initially rise up above 2% in March 2013, shortly after the original Steam for Linux release when it left Beta. Part of the reason it had higher numbers at the start, was that Valve added a special Tux item into Team Fortress 2 only on Linux but it quickly dropped in the following months.

With the latest info though from the May 2024 survey, Linux has now hit 2.32%.

• Windows 96.21% -0.55%
• Linux 2.32% +0.42%
• macOS 1.47% +0.12%

If I have my historical data correct, we haven't seen Linux be over 2% since 2013. Take into account the explosive growth of Steam as a platform and that's quite a lot of people now. Mostly thanks to Steam Deck.

See it over time on our Steam Tracker page.

The Linux distribution breakdown:

• SteamOS Holo 64 bit 45.34% +3.01%
• Arch Linux 64 bit 7.90% -0.34%
• Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.05% +0.04%
• Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64 bit 4.76% -1.37%
• Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 4.23% -0.16%
• Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.18% -0.19%
• Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit 2.62% +2.62% (Steam Snap)
• Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.57% +2.57%
• Other 23.98% -5.55%

See more on the Steam Survey.