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PayPalValve have released the Steam Hardware & Software Survey numbers for February 2025, and there's a pretty massive increase in Simplified Chinese as language which has pushed about all the numbers everywhere else.
As a result of this there's also been a big increase in Windows 10 (+10.47%), which as we've seen repeatedly in the past ends up bringing down the overall Linux numbers. The +20.88% for Simplified Chinese in a single month is pretty striking though (although not the biggest swing we've seen) so I've asked Valve if this is correct.
Taking the numbers as they are right now gives us overall:
- Windows 97.58% +1.03%
- Linux 1.45% -0.61%
- macOS 0.97% -0.43%
See the interactive version on our dedicated Steam Tracker page.
On the Linux side Valve list these as the most-used distributions:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit 34.67% -0.26%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 9.70% +0.29%
- Freedesktop SDK 24.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.16% +0.15%
- Linux Mint 22.1 64 bit 4.53% +4.53%
- Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit 4.21% +0.08%
- Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS 64 bit 3.56% -1.28%
- Other 37.17% +6.24%
Source: Valve
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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We seriously need to get China on board with Linux. Don't they even have their own distro? You'd think not having a US company spy on their data would be a serious selling point.
18 Likes, Who?
Kimyrielle a day ago
That baffles me, too. One should think the CCP would push a OS not controlled by the U.S. and do anything to make its IT as independent as possible. An OS that, on top of all that, doesn't even cost anything.
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Philadelphus a day ago
Isn't Windows 10 end-of-life coming up pretty soon? Or end of Steam support for it, or something? It'll be interesting to see what happens with that. (I'm not expecting a huge influx to Linux or anything, just curious how long people will continue to hold on to it.)
1 Likes, Who?
Isn't Windows 10 end-of-life coming up pretty soon?
October.
Or end of Steam support for it, or something?
Steam only dropped support for Windows 7 & 8 at the beginning of last year, and they've been EOL for ages. Even then they only got dropped because they got dropped by Chrome.
3 Likes, Who?
pleasereadthemanual 22 hours ago
Wow, macOS slipped below 1%.
2 Likes, Who?
I don't understand why they are counted. They should be on their own client. I've never heard of such a thing outside of Steam.
Last edited by Leahi84 on 3 Mar 2025 at 5:28 am UTC
Last edited by Leahi84 on 3 Mar 2025 at 5:28 am UTC
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pleasereadthemanual 14 hours ago
I don't understand why they are counted. They should be on their own client. I've never heard of such a thing outside of Steam.Why shouldn't Chinese Steam users be counted? They make up a great portion of the whole.
On the other hand, they have access to significantly fewer games, if I recall correctly.
2 Likes, Who?
We seriously need to get China on board with Linux. Don't they even have their own distro?The Chinese are preparing their OS to replace Windows and Linux. According to rumors, the official launch will be in April: https://www.huaweicentral.com/huawei-harmonyos-pc-could-go-official-in-april/
I don't understand why they are counted. They should be on their own client.What is this desire to lock people up? Maybe it's hereditary?
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We seriously need to get China on board with Linux. Don't they even have their own distro? You'd think not having a US company spy on their data would be a serious selling point.@belisama
I remember back in the 2000's, they had Red Flag Linux but it didn't take off and based on what mphuZ said, it looks like they're going to use HarmonyOS NEXT now.
Last edited by ToddL on 3 Mar 2025 at 6:37 pm UTC
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Four and half percent increase for Linux Mint! Gald to have collaborated to that. I switched to Linux Mint from Windows last month and am loving it!
3 Likes, Who?
Philadelphus 2 hours ago
Steam only dropped support for Windows 7 & 8 at the beginning of last year, and they've been EOL for ages.That's probably what I was thinking of, thanks.
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I remember back in the 2000's, they had Red Flag Linux but it didn't take off and based on what mphuZ said, it looks like they're going to use HarmonyOS NEXT now.I think you're forgetting Kylin Linux, which is already the official OS of the Chinese government, and if Wikipedia is to be believed, "ships pre-installed on most computers sold in China". But apparently they do all their gaming on Windows.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kylin_(operating_system)
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So, more Ubuntu users are using the Snap version of Steam now than those using the native version. Interesting.
Also interesting to see Ubuntu overall continues to slide down.
Also interesting to see Ubuntu overall continues to slide down.
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@Liam, I think it is correct; the increase in Chinesse user would be for the bug Chinese holidays of february. What surprising is that last year this annual increase was in march.
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