Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

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.
20 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked 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.
See more from me
23 comments
Page: «3/3
  Go to:

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.

The conspiratory part is that I'm arguing that the NSA paid them for it.
The hypothetical part about it was that the NSA paid them for it.
Your argument upgrades my hypothesis to a theory, but it leaves the conspiratory part.

To be a conspiracy people have to work together in secret to harm someone, which is literally what I argued: NSA+Microsoft harm China.
To be a theory effects originating from the hypothesis have to show up: "active support for pirated software".


Last edited by LoudTechie on 9 July 2024 at 12:21 pm UTC
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.


You're deeply underestimating the power of piracy and nation states.
A. Subscription doesn't mean cloud, it means drm, which is much easier to crack especially in the case of resource intense stuff like Photoshop.
B. Cloud cracking still happens, such as with the Adobe AI and storage features, just less.
F.Ultra Jul 9
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: LoudTechie
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.

The conspiratory part is that I'm arguing that the NSA paid them for it.
The hypothetical part about it was that the NSA paid them for it.
Your argument upgrades my hypothesis to a theory, but it leaves the conspiratory part.

To be a conspiracy people have to work together in secret to harm someone, which is literally what I argued: NSA+Microsoft harm China.
To be a theory effects originating from the hypothesis have to show up: "active support for pirated software".

Ah sorry, I misread your post. Yeah I don't think NSA had anything to do with it, Microsoft had full motives to do this on their own and I highly doubt that the NSA have a backdoor in Windows. We have seen from history and from Snowden how NSA operates, they either intercept shipping and manipulates hw or they operate as the repairman (as they did for Xerox back in the cold war), involving private companies like Microsoft leaves too many loose ends and mouths that can speak.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register


Or login with...
Sign in with Steam Sign in with Google
Social logins require cookies to stay logged in.

Buy Games
Buy games with our affiliate / partner links: