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.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Kimyrielle Jun 2
Quoting: Purple Library GuyGood news! I'm still wondering what's up with the increasingly strong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Speculating here, but it could be because of some governments moving away from using Windows for their administration. These Linux PCs would be seen on on web, but not on Steam.
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Quoting: amataiIt's interesting to see the superposition of the slow growth of the Linux Desktop marketshare (1% at Steam Deck release, now 1.2 -1.3%) and the more rapid growth of steam deck (roughly half of Linux marketshare on steam).
the biggest console sold arround 157~160 millions of units, we have something like 1.8 billions of desktop pcs, so even in the best case scenario (if steamdeck sold as much as ps2 wich was the most sold console ever) we would be seeing 10% of marketshare at the best case scenario.
that is... if we ignore other factors like people who play both on their pc and their decks, but keep windows on their pcs (so they count for both sides) or people who heard about linux thanks to the deck and decided to try on their pc.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyGood news! I'm still wondering what's up with the increasingly strong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Do you wonder about the difference between Mac's 14.9% on browser stats and 1.5% on Steam stats? It's the same thing.
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Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: Purple Library GuyGood news! I'm still wondering what's up with the increasingly strong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Do you wonder about the difference between Mac's 14.9% on browser stats and 1.5% on Steam stats? It's the same thing.
Yeah, I think it's this exactly. People have just been conditioned to use Windows or a console for gaming. If you do play games on Linux or Mac, you are conditioned to play games from a select group of games. At least up until recently with Proton and Linux.
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Quoting: Purple Library Guystrong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Mostly it is that Steam is also growing (and this is in places with small linux usage). You have to grow as fast just to stand still in relative terms. One way to see linux growth somehow clean (not completely of course but this is at least much better) of that effect is looking the English only percentages. Gaming on linux actually does that! Go to Sections->Steam Tracker and the last diagram is this. Linux has reached 5.29% in English.
Last edited by lucinos on 3 June 2024 at 8:51 am UTC
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Quoting: CatKillerYes and no. The difference, sure, at any particular snapshot in time. But that's not what I was wondering about. Linux's 4% on the web was 2% not so long ago--the Linux desktop web share has apparently doubled, while its Steam share has inched upwards, I dunno, maybe 10%. This during a time when using the Linux desktop to game has rapidly gotten more workable, so if anything I would have expected the ratio to shrink, not grow. Still seems odd to me.Quoting: Purple Library GuyGood news! I'm still wondering what's up with the increasingly strong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Do you wonder about the difference between Mac's 14.9% on browser stats and 1.5% on Steam stats? It's the same thing.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 3 June 2024 at 9:22 am UTC
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Quoting: lucinosNo, that's a misunderstanding. Steam is growing, yes. Absent any other factors, that growth would not change the percentages. If the general population of computer users that join Steam, causing it to grow, include the same percentages of different OS users that they did in the past, the joiners would join in the same percentages, leaving the percentage of Steam users with various OSes unchanged.Quoting: Purple Library Guystrong difference between the apparent growth speed of desktop Linux on the web (as noted here ), and the relatively slow growth of desktop Linux on Steam.
Mostly it is that Steam is also growing (and this is in places with small linux usage). You have to grow as fast just to stand still in relative terms. One way to see linux growth somehow clean (not completely of course but this is at least much better) of that effect is looking the English only percentages. Gaming on linux actually does that! Go to Sections->Steam Tracker and the last diagram is this. Linux has reached 5.29% in English.
The English percentage should also be irrelevant, since the web use stats giving 4% are drawn from a big worldwide sample of websites.
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Quoting: TcheyIt’s still sooo small ! And mainly because of a "not really Linux PC" device. But alright, it’s better than previous 1%, and less than the next step.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyYes and no. The difference, sure, at any particular snapshot in time. But that's not what I was wondering about. Linux's 4% on the web was 2% not so long ago--the Linux desktop web share has apparently doubled, while its Steam share has inched upwards, I dunno, maybe 10%. This during a time when using the Linux desktop to game has rapidly gotten more workable, so if anything I would have expected the ratio to shrink, not grow. Still seems odd to me.
Since September 2018 (the start of the GOL data) Linux in the web browser has grown from 1.68% to 3.77%, while Linux on Steam has grown from 0.78% to 2.32%. There just hasn't been the meteoric rise that you're imagining. Linux usage on the desktop has just had slow, steady, boring growth whichever way you measure. With slightly faster growth for gaming specifically once a high-profile company releases a high-profile gaming device with Linux pre-installed.
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