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UPDATE: Actually, it didn't go up.

The Linux market share on Steam has bounced backed a little in the latest Steam Hardware Survey for December 2017.

Note: Valve do sometimes adjust these numbers a few days later, so keep an eye on it.

As I noted in a recent article, one of the biggest causes of the Linux market share dropping on Steam was an influx of users from Asia. It seems the latest data has gone the opposite way. Here's a look at where Linux is at currently: 0.43%. That's quite an increase, considering the month before it was at 0.27%.

Why has this happened? Well, going by the same way I looked at it before, the use of "Simplified Chinese" as a language on Steam dropped by 15.31%. Also worth noting Windows 7 use dropped by 15.10%, with Windows 10 going up by 13.15%. The overall Windows share dropped by a total of 0.51%.

Here's some updated charts from the previous article (do read it for more info), first here's the Linux market share just by itself as a reference:

Here's what happens again when we look at languages and what happened with them over that same period:

And finally, here's what happens when we look at the market share when we take out Simplified Chinese and we look at just English as languages on Steam:

I did say it would bounce back. However, I expect it to be all over the place this year, up and down constantly due to games like PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS not being on Linux, which is currently the most popular game on Steam. It's also still growing, since it hit 3.1 million players online only three days ago, which is why I still expect the numbers to change both ways over the year. Also somewhat interesting, is that BattlEye tweeted out about 1.5 million bans being handed out for PUBG.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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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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Eike Jan 11, 2018
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Quoting: g000hIn terms of exposure to Linux, this old neighbour had an old laptop with a broken Windows install on it (Windows 95 or XP, I can't remember). I offered to fix it for him, by installing Linux. He happily engaged with Linux - browsing, emailing, OpenOffice for working on documents and spreadsheets, making Skype calls and messages. He wasn't really used to Windows, and took up Linux with very limited computer skills - and managed okay with it.

IMHO, Linux is very suitable for people with nearly no computer knowledge. Of course, they cannot fix/administrate it. But they cannot fix Windows either when it's broken.


Last edited by Eike on 11 January 2018 at 5:13 pm UTC
tonR Mar 18, 2018
I don't know where I suppose to post this but after nearly 2 years........................

I GOT STEAM HARDWARE SURVEY! (Sunday, 18 Mar 2018, 12:01 PM MYT, UTC+8)

Maybe we should open special forum to report if we got Steam survey.

p/s: BTW very noob question. How to upload/post picture on GoL? Seriously I don't know how.
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