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The number of Linux gamers on Steam continues to grow, according to Valve

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Recently, Engadget wrote an article about Linux gaming and apart from a bit of a silly title and information regular GOL readers will be aware of, they did have some interesting info from Valve.

I don't put too much thought into the title they decided to give it, "Linux gaming is on a life-support system called Steam", since when you think about it that's actually quite close to the truth. Valve are the biggest pushers of Linux gaming and one of the only major forces doing so.

While I've long said that the amount of Linux gamers using Steam will be increasing all the time, the actual market share of Linux on Steam hasn't really gone anywhere. At times, it has certainly looked like the amount of Linux gamers has decreased if you take the percentage at face value.

The key thing to remember, is that Windows and Mac obviously grow too (which I've previously mentioned multiple times) and if they grow more it would bring down the Linux market share percentage. The Engadget article touched on this, with a quote from Valve directly to make it clear:

"The overall percentage still has a lot of ground to make up, but the number of Linux gamers on Steam continues to grow at a similar rate as those playing on Windows," Steam developer Pierre-Loup Griffais told Engadget. "It looks like there might actually be an increase trend in Linux gamers starting from October when we released the new Steam Play [Proton] beta, but it's too early to tell if it's had a real lasting impact."

Nice to hear that direct from Valve, who also said they do plan to continue their Linux investments and they believe open gaming platforms will result in a better experience for us all. Heck, Valve even have a job opening for a SteamOS Software Engineer.

The wider media tend to ignore Linux (for obvious reasons right now), so I think it's actually quite nice that Engadget put some real thought into this and got some good info there.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam, Valve
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About the author -
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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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22 comments
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Dea1993 Feb 21, 2019
it was obvious, infact the total number of users is always bigger month after month.. but the linux percentage is always the same (more or less).
this is possible only if the number of linux users grow as windows users
Mohandevir Feb 21, 2019
Quoting: Purple Library Guy...Linux in general is healthy as a horse; whether it's servers, cloud (which I still don't quite get the difference between "the cloud" and "a server somewhere I don't happen to know where it is"...

Like they say: "There is no cloud... It's just someone else's computer." ;)

Quoting: Alm888... Look up to the CDPR: they screwed Linux gamers over with "The Withcher III" and got away with it.

The situation was much more complexe than that. Personally I think that a really vocal part of Linux gamers screwed CDPR big time too. I takes two to tango. VP too was responsible for a part of the backlash. Putting the blame solely on CDPR is quite simplistic. I beg to differ.

This said, yeah, I'm a Witcher fanboy, but I'm not going to tell you to buy it. You are entitled to your own decisions. Still, I have the feeling that Linux lost an early supporter that would probably still be on our platform had it not been for the Witcher 2 fiasco and all parties involved are in part to be blamed, imo.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 21 February 2019 at 5:56 pm UTC
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