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While there's been a clear drop, the Linux user share on Steam for June 2024 still remains about 2% showing the clear upwards trend overall. Interestingly, this is another month where Simplified Chinese as a language on Steam saw a jump, and quite often we see Linux drop when this happens.

According to Valve the latest operating system details are:

  • Windows 96.61% +0.40%
  • Linux 2.08% -0.24%
  • macOS 1.31% -0.16%

Here's the Linux stat over time:


You can see it on our Steam Tracker page.

For Linux, the Steam Deck with SteamOS continues propping up the numbers with it being the most popular by far.

  • SteamOS Holo 64 bit 41.17% -4.17%
  • Arch Linux 64 bit 8.08% +0.18%
  • Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.71% +0.66%
  • Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 5.10% +0.87%
  • Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64 bit 4.26% -0.50%
  • Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.09% -0.09%
  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 64 bit 3.03% +3.03%
  • Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit (Steam Snap) 2.97% +0.35%
  • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.65% +0.08%
  • Other 22.94% -1.04%

See all on the Steam Survey.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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23 comments
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I believe it was John Carmack (id Software) who stated years ago that if it's just about making money, only Windows matters. Considering around 75% of Windows-only games can be run on Linux, I'm perfectly happy being on the Linux side of things. 👍🏼
Quoting: StalePopcornI believe it was John Carmack (id Software) who stated years ago that if it's just about making money, only Windows matters. Considering around 75% of Windows-only games can be run on Linux, I'm perfectly happy being on the Linux side of things. 👍🏼

Only 75%? I thought the number was way higher, but I could be just me. I typically don't play games with intrusive anti-cheat, so I haven't really seen anything that doesn't run for me in a long while.
It's a pleasant thing when a big drop still leaves you at the second highest level ever.
All thanks to Steam Deck - now, can desktop Linux keep up with the momentum?
Highball Jul 3
Quoting: Purple Library GuyIt's a pleasant thing when a big drop still leaves you at the second highest level ever.

Pretty cool. Looks like another month with Linux at 4%

The Network Effect for Desktop Linux is gonna happen soon. When that happens, Microsoft will no longer be able to use the power of their purse to maintain dominance with the Desktop market.
F.Ultra Jul 3
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Quoting: LoudTechie
QuoteOn the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.


Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.
Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program.
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

This is not a conspiracy, not only do we have actual proof, Microsoft is doing it in full public: Free Windows 10 upgrade for China pirates. While this particular news item is for Windows 10 they have done this in the past as well.
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: LoudTechie
QuoteOn the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.


Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.
Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program.
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

This is not a conspiracy, not only do we have actual proof, Microsoft is doing it in full public: Free Windows 10 upgrade for China pirates. While this particular news item is for Windows 10 they have done this in the past as well.
Makes me wonder . . . so, recently you've got Adobe going to a revolting subscription model for all their stuff. MS Office seems to be trying to do a Google Docs thing where they're emphasizing their cloud-based version, which . . . is that a paid subscription too? Is this a widespread trend?
If it is, that subscription/cloud stuff's hard to pirate. Bunch of Chinese people might find themselves having to pay for, not Windows itself, but increasing amounts of the software they run on it. Chinese users don't care about open source, but they certainly seem to care about cheap. I can imagine a move towards Linux just for the free-as-in-beer software ecosystem. Be ironic 'cause in the past, it was Linux's software ecosystem that held it back.
F.Ultra Jul 4
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Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: LoudTechie
QuoteOn the one hand it surprises me that Linux isn't as popular in China as in, say, Germany, Brazil or India. But it also makes a lot of sense: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

If you look at the "Linux market share on Steam, another way to look at it" section, you can see the Linux (English only) share madly distances itself from Linux Overall share soon after the Steam Deck releases. Which is still not available in China, as far as I know.

Still handily beating macOS.


Warning here I'm probably a conspiracy theorist.
I can't help it.
If you don't want to read my conspiracy hypothesis(I don't have enough proof to rightfully call it a theory) about how Microsoft and the NSA are actively keeping China on Microsoft products don't click on the spoiler tag.
Spoiler, click me

The story behind Windows being popular in China smells like politics to me, but I can't prove anything directly.
Microsoft has widely encouraged Windows piracy explicitly in that market to get them reliant on their products, we've got Gates' word on this.
It's not in the consumer space alone either WannaCry wrecked Chinese servers left and right, because they all ran pirated xp to the point that China pressured Microsoft in updating XP out of release.
Microsoft is deeply embedded in the prism program.
China has done a lot of attempts to launch their "own" operating system(android and ubuntu forks) for "independence from western ecosystems", all these attempts failed miserably for all the expected reasons(reliant on proprietary shit that doesn't run on Linux).
Microsoft still barely makes a dime of all this pirated Windows in China.
I think the NSA pas them good money to make China reliant on their product and include espionage software on demand.

This is not a conspiracy, not only do we have actual proof, Microsoft is doing it in full public: Free Windows 10 upgrade for China pirates. While this particular news item is for Windows 10 they have done this in the past as well.
Makes me wonder . . . so, recently you've got Adobe going to a revolting subscription model for all their stuff. MS Office seems to be trying to do a Google Docs thing where they're emphasizing their cloud-based version, which . . . is that a paid subscription too? Is this a widespread trend?
If it is, that subscription/cloud stuff's hard to pirate. Bunch of Chinese people might find themselves having to pay for, not Windows itself, but increasing amounts of the software they run on it. Chinese users don't care about open source, but they certainly seem to care about cheap. I can imagine a move towards Linux just for the free-as-in-beer software ecosystem. Be ironic 'cause in the past, it was Linux's software ecosystem that held it back.

Don't have much experience with Windows software but a quick look tells me that Office 365 which is their cloud office solution costs about $80 per year for a single user. And if I'm not remembering completely wrong they for a long time makes far much more money from the Office suite than they ever done with Windows so Windows have since some time in the mid 90:ies simply been a way to sell you Office. Hence the importance of having people and organizations being locked into the proprietary office formats.


Last edited by F.Ultra on 4 July 2024 at 12:06 am UTC
fabertawe Jul 4
Quoting: KorhakaI had the hardware survey just now. I have 1 SSD and 3 HDDs and it marked them all as SSDs. Other than that it got everything correct. Seems odd that there is no way to flag that it detected something incorrectly.

Got the survey yesterday for the first time in many, many years and it registered my HDD as an SSD as well, along with my four SSD/M2s.
Eike Jul 4
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  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: fabertawe
Quoting: KorhakaI had the hardware survey just now. I have 1 SSD and 3 HDDs and it marked them all as SSDs. Other than that it got everything correct. Seems odd that there is no way to flag that it detected something incorrectly.

Got the survey yesterday for the first time in many, many years and it registered my HDD as an SSD as well, along with my four SSD/M2s.

I heard this part is known broken for quite some time. I just ignore it.
(Got the survey at least half a dozen times already over the decade.)
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