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If you didn't know already, Unity games tend to phone home details of what you're running. They release this data (here), and it shows Linux is a pretty low percentage of gamers.

Now, let's first look at the last time I covered this, their data showed Linux as 0.1%. Now it shows Linux at 0.4%, it has at least increased, but the percentage is still low overall.

Something I would like to mention is that these statistics should never be taken at face value (much like the Steam Hardware Survey).

This survey is worse in my eyes, considering the vast amounts of Unity games that are not on Linux. There's far more Unity games on other platforms (Windows, Mac), than there is on Linux. That alone will bring down our overall platform percentage on their system. We can't exactly compete when people will be playing games we just don't have.

I also don't think their detection is exactly reliable, let's take a look at the Linux platforms:
QuoteTop on 2016-03:
unknown: 84.1%
Ubuntu: 11.0%
Mint: 3.8%
SteamOS: 0.5%
Others (click to show): 0.6%
Debian: 0.3%
Linux 3.2 (Canaima 3.1): 0.1%
Fedora: 0.1%
Elementary: 0.0%
Suse: 0.0%
Linux 3.13 (Zorin 9) 64bit: 0.0%
Arch: 0.0%

An unknown Linux platform being at 84.1%...what?

Remember folks, surveys and statistics like this never paint a clear picture. Remember that before you see any other site claiming Linux gaming is dying or something. 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. Find me on Mastodon.
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27 comments
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z3ntu Mar 31, 2016
At the beginning of the graph "unknown" was only 15.1%...
Spl-it Mar 31, 2016
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Could the low numbers have anything to do with the "great" performance of unity3d games on linux ?

nah, probably not
Luke_Nukem Mar 31, 2016
Le sigh.
Yes, this statistic is seriously skewed due to small number of Linux games compared to Windows.

Now if they could release stats for *only* cross-platform games, that number would be very different.
fagnerln Mar 31, 2016
I was curious about what games I have are Unity3D, so I've looked at this list and I have few of them, mostly indies that I will never play again:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unity_games

The engine obviously are focused on mobile and weak in PC, the only game with extreme success was Cities Skylines.
neowiz73 Mar 31, 2016
I don't know why a lot of these surveys don't use screenfetch data. because that way they can get a much more accurate reading so they don't have so much "unknown". but even then it's not really worthwhile to know the distro tbh. uname -a should be all the data they really need.
But like you mentioned in the article not all Unity games are available to Linux so that limits the overall percentage already.
unless the 0.4% is from all known available Linux games. But then again with Unity 5 having so many issues with Linux, there's an even lower chance people will want to purchase the game to begin with. A vast majority of these games seem to be in "Early alpha to beta" stages of development as well.
So that information is lackluster at best.


Last edited by neowiz73 on 31 March 2016 at 7:25 pm UTC
spjoe Mar 31, 2016
QuoteArch: 0.0%

:( I play alot unity games on my ArchLinux, maybe I should open some ports ;)
Fornax Mar 31, 2016
Linux usage is looking a lot better on [url=pixeldra.in]my website[/url] :)

I guess it mostly has to do with the communities I hang out in.

Farmboy0 Mar 31, 2016
Wow, I didnt know the OS counts as hardware nowadays.
elbuglione Mar 31, 2016
AppArmor is working great...
TheRiddick Mar 31, 2016
I'm pretty sure allot of their engine games have issues. I can't get them working with the OSS driver and a 390x, will give it another go once I get my card back (RMA)
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