Don't want to see articles from a certain category? When logged in, go to your User Settings and adjust your feed in the Content Preferences section where you can block tags!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Yacht Club Games have announced that Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove [Official Site] has officially sold 2 million copies, with Linux accounting for 1.1% of Steam sales. It's great to see another success story for an indie developer, as that's a pretty healthy amount of sales, especially considering the amount of competition when it comes to this type of game.

In their announcement, they actually left out Linux statistics completely (likely due to how small it is). So I reached out to the developer to ask about Steam sales with Linux being included and they allowed me to share this with you:

So that's Windows: 93.5%, Mac: 5.4% and Linux at 1.1%.

It is worth noting, that the Linux version was released several months after the Windows version, so it's possible a few sales would have been lost there. We know a timely release does affect Linux sales, with people running games in Wine or loading up a Windows install for some games (something I read about people doing quite often).

Also, when comparing PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) to other platforms, Windows itself only sold 24.4% of the copies with 3DS coming in hot at 23.9%. 

Don't own it yet and want to boost their Linux sales a little or just fancy giving it a go? You can grab Shovel Knight on Humble Store, GOG and Steam. Note: Humble and GOG links are affiliate links.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
7 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 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.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
25 comments
Page: «2/3»
  Go to:

hardpenguin Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: ShmerlI'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).
macOS has nearly 20% of market share in USA (according to StatCounter), which is the biggest regional market on Steam among paying customers (according to SteamSpy).

Sources:

http://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/united-states-of-america

https://galyonk.in/steam-in-2017-129c0e6be260
GustyGhost Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: ShmerlI'm surprised that macOS is still above Linux sales. With Apple planning to kill 32-bit support in the future, I suspect at least a portion of macOS gamers will migrate to Linux (otherwise they'll lose their 32-bit games for good).

Being a 2D game, SK has more appeal to those running mac hardware with integrated Intel graphics and the like. I am certain those sales figures already skew differently for graphically demanding games like Tomb Raider. Anybody got stats on these?
Shmerl Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: omer666So how did they run their favourite games? They started to run the Windows versions... On Wine. I'd bet they'll keep doing this with 32bits-only games.

Except that Wine relies on 32-bit libraries (and kernel support) to run 32-bit games. So if Apple will bork it in macOS, Wine won't run any 32-bit games there either if I understand correctly. So it would be some incentive for them to switch to Linux. That already in some way happened, when Apple stopped updating OpenGL there.


Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 6:16 pm UTC
BlackBloodRum Apr 12, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Goes to show though, even if Steam says we're at 0.001% of users we can still count for a larger number of sales than our expected userbase.

So yes, we're only 0.001% but we can still add that 1.1% (more or less depending on game) to a games sales. That's still extra money for the developers whichever way you spin it.

What would be interesting is to see statistics on a big game ported by Aspyr like DiRT Rally (epic game) and where we would stand on a game like that.

The numbers must be OK because codemasters have let them port a few games now.

Aspyr, care to help? :-D
omer666 Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: Shmerl
Quoting: omer666So how did they run their favourite games? They started to run the Windows versions... On Wine. I'd bet they'll keep doing this with 32bits-only games.

Except that Wine relies on 32-bit libraries (and kernel support) to run 32-bit games. So if Apple will bork it in macOS, Wine won't run any 32-bit games there either if I understand correctly. So it would be some incentive for them to switch to Linux. That already in some way happened, when Apple stopped updating OpenGL there.

My mistake, you are completely right. Yet I still doubt Apple dropping 32bit would change a thing for them anyway. Soon they will be able to play the wonderful iPhone games they've been longing for, thanks to the unification of iOS and macOS apps.
frakswe Apr 12, 2018
but i got it for free, as usually is the case with steamplay games,linux/wintel/mac in one go.is there a way on steam to choose only one system? i see this as great bonus btw,got lots of linux games because of steamplay to go thru now.


Last edited by frakswe on 12 April 2018 at 8:17 pm UTC
tuubi Apr 12, 2018
View PC info
  • Supporter
Quoting: frakswebut i got it for free, as usually is the case with steamplay games,linux/wintel/mac in one go.is there a way on steam to choose only one system?
You can choose which platforms to show on your store front page in your account preferences, and you can filter your games per platform in your library. Is either of those what you mean?
frakswe Apr 12, 2018
nah i just wonder what counts as a linux sale, in my case i bought the game when i was on wintel but got the linux version aswell in the same deal.that's what "steamplay" refers to.
Shmerl Apr 12, 2018
Quoting: frakswenah i just wonder what counts as a linux sale, in my case i bought the game when i was on wintel but got the linux version aswell in the same deal.that's what "steamplay" refers to.

The concept of "sale" is quite moot here. More important is the concept of download. I.e. you are buying all versions at once. But when you download, you usually are getting one for your OS. So I suppose if you downloaded the Linux version, it should count as Linux download. I wonder what happens if you download all versions.


Last edited by Shmerl on 12 April 2018 at 9:30 pm UTC
frakswe Apr 12, 2018
well the article says "sales",but ofcourse you're right..the piechart doesn't make any sense otherwise.
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!
The comments on this article are closed.