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Across various previous articles we've looked at how many games are supported on Linux and how many Windows games work with Steam Play Proton, so let's take a look at the current top 100.

The top 100 Steam games is a list that fluctuates quite a lot, so this is taken using a snapshot of what was available thanks to SteamDB going by the 24 hour player peak count. Seems like a pretty good sample to use since it shouldn't be drastically different any time soon, except for big new releases after the article goes live of course. So this is just a snapshot of how things look in early October 2021 ahead of the Steam Deck release.

Over time the compatibility is expected to increase thanks to native ports, more Windows-only games working with Steam Play Proton and now Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye have expanded their support.

Name 24 Hr Peak Linux Status
New World 790,682 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 789,100 Linux Native
Dota 2 587,627 Linux Native
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 341,912 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Apex Legends 220,593 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT 131,161 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Grand Theft Auto V 103,932 Works with Proton
Team Fortress 2 89,491 Linux Native
Destiny 2 81,595 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Rust 69,107 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Wallpaper Engine 64,082 Proton Broken
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 64,048 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Warframe 59,171 Works with Proton
Dead by Daylight 56,988 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Rocket League 54,039 Works with Proton
Battlefield V 51,319 Works with Proton
Football Manager 2021 50,672 Works with Proton
ARK: Survival Evolved 46,999 Linux Native
FIFA 22 46,847 Works with Proton
Cookie Clicker 46,482 Works with Proton
Valheim 46,423 Linux Native
MIR4 46,023 Proton Broken
PAYDAY 2 38,942 Linux Native
Sid Meier's Civilization VI 37,433 Linux Native
Terraria 36,815 Linux Native
Euro Truck Simulator 2 35,640 Linux Native
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online 35,113 Works with Proton GE
DayZ 34,126 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
War Thunder 32,164 Linux Native
World of Tanks Blitz 31,939 Works with Proton
Hearts of Iron IV 31,686 Linux Native
Unturned 29,382 Linux Native
Garry's Mod 28,931 Linux Native
Farming Simulator 19 28,141 Works with Proton
Monster Hunter: World 28,126 Works with Proton
The Elder Scrolls Online 25,690 Works with Proton
Don't Starve Together 25,412 Linux Native
Total War: WARHAMMER II 25,372 Linux Native
Stardew Valley 24,900 Linux Native
Brawlhalla 23,196 Works with Proton
雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) 23,028 Works with Proton
Left 4 Dead 2 22,208 Linux Native
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition 21,876 Works with Proton GE
Phasmophobia 21,558 Works with Proton
Europa Universalis IV 20,886 Linux Native
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 20,084 Works with Proton
Sid Meier's Civilization V 19,629 Linux Native
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 19,578 Works with Proton
7 Days to Die 19,320 Linux Native
RimWorld 19,272 Linux Native
Black Desert 18,719 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Red Dead Redemption 2 18,622 Works with Proton
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous 18,336 Works with Proton
Bloons TD 6 17,775 Works with Proton
VRChat 17,705 Unstable with Proton
Bless Unleashed 17,400 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 17,363 Linux Native
Fallout 4 17,208 Works with Proton
SMITE 17,107 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Hunt: Showdown 16,873 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
SCUM 16,750 Proton Broken
Factorio 16,549 Linux Native
Stellaris 16,463 Linux Native
Cities: Skylines 16,238 Linux Native
Arma 3 16,060 Partially works with Proton
Conqueror's Blade 15,251 Proton Broken
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 14,638 Works with Proton
Battlefield 1 14,473 Works with Proton
Counter-Strike 14,338 Linux Native
tModLoader 14,225 Linux Native
No Man's Sky 13,686 Works with Proton
Forza Horizon 4 13,465 Works with Proton
EA SPORTS FIFA 21 13,399 Unstable with Proton
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links 13,358 Works with Proton
eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE 13,297 Partially works with Proton
NBA 2K22 12,848 Works with Proton
Crusader Kings III 12,609 Linux Native
Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 12,494 Proton Broken
Sea of Thieves 12,394 Partially works with Proton
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 12,266 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Football Manager 2020 11,991 Works with Proton
The Sims 4 11,627 Works with Proton
Soundpad 11,571 Proton Broken
Path of Exile 11,232 Works with Proton
Geometry Dash 11,031 Works with Proton
Need for Speed Heat 11,018 Works with Proton
Satisfactory 10,788 Works with Proton
World of Warships 10,775 Works with Proton
DARK SOULS III 10,733 Works with Proton
Medieval Dynasty 10,611 Works with Proton GE
Dying Light 10,453 Linux Native
F1 2021 10,224 Proton Broken
Paladins 10,144 Proton Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Cyberpunk 2077 9,952 Works with Proton
Tales of Arise 9,686 Works with Proton
Eternal Return 9,235 Proton Broken
Divinity: Original Sin 2 9,131 Works with Proton
BeamNG.drive 9,123 Works with Proton
Timberborn 8,775 Works with Proton
Among Us 8,699 Works with Proton

Some notes:

  • Proton GE refers to the community-built version of Proton. So while it requires adding it manually (which takes all of 5 minutes), it still works. This is sometimes needed for games where videos don't work with the official Proton. Valve is working on getting them all working out of the box with official Proton.
  • We expect Rust to work at the launch of the Steam Deck or shortly after, given that Garry Newman of Facepunch already stated previously it was in progress to have their Easy Anti-Cheat supported in Proton.
  • Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition works but online multiplayer can desync unless you do a small fix.
  • Phasmophobia doesn't have in-game voice due to it needing Windows Cortana.
  • The native port of ARK: Survival Evolved is pretty poor, and online with the Windows version in Proton is broken due to the BattlEye anti-cheat used.
  • Rocket League was removed from Steam, however it does work with Wine (which Proton is built from) if you use something like the Heroic Games Launcher.
  • Total War: WARHAMMER II has a native Linux port but the multiplayer is separated from Windows, it does also work with Proton.
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth has a native port but the latest DLC does not, so it needs Proton for that.
  • Fallout 4 works but needs a small launch option fix for the audio.
  • Arma 3 single-player can work with Proton but multiplayer does not, same for eFootball PES 2021 SEASON UPDATE.
  • Sea of Thieves works but is missing in-game voice chat.

The takeaway here is that when blending together native Linux builds, those that run well with the official Valve Proton and Proton GE you can currently expect approximately 75% (minus 3 if you don't want to count Proton GE) of the top 100 to work on Linux / SteamOS and so hopefully the SteamOS Linux powered Steam Deck too.

It's never going to be an exact figure because PC gaming (both Windows and Linux) has so many possible configurations, there's a lot of wiggle room for games to work for one person and not another so as always take it with a grain of salt. How well they work within the constraints of the Steam Deck is another matter, many will need special tweaks.

When you think about those broken by anti-cheat, 15 might not sound like a lot but these are they absolute most popular games on Steam. Their absence will be felt if they aren't updated to work.

Considering there are over 52,000 games on Steam (with hundreds releasing each week), Valve has plenty of work to do with Proton to hit their marketing where they've said their aim is for all games to work. Hopefully a bunch more developers will also look to support Linux directly with either native builds or properly test against Proton to further increase compatibility.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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rustybroomhandle Oct 5, 2021
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online actually works with regular Proton also, you just need to do the two cfg file changes yourself. However, in both cases it only works by enabling the legacy launcher, with the possibility of Square pulling the plug on that at any moment looming overhead like the sword of Damocles.
linuxjacques Oct 5, 2021
Imagine if we didn't have cheaters...
Purple Library Guy Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: BielFPsSadly 9 of the top 15 games are borked
Sure, but 8 of those are from anti-cheat. I would be really surprised if Valve were unable to persuade those people to enable their anticheat to work with Proton.
rustybroomhandle Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library Guy
Quoting: BielFPsSadly 9 of the top 15 games are borked
Sure, but 8 of those are from anti-cheat. I would be really surprised if Valve were unable to persuade those people to enable their anticheat to work with Proton.

I don't think Valve holds as much persuasive power as one would imagine. I suspect not many of these developers are going to bother at all.
ripper81358 Oct 5, 2021
The steamdeck is allready a great device for us linuxusers in my opinion, given the fact that all the improvements that we enjoy now where made to make the deck possible at all.

However Valve needs to bring the enduserexperience to a point where everything works out of the box. Most potential deck customers are comming from Windows. I don't think that the majority of those users want to fiddle around with Proton GE and special startupcommands.

The out of the box experience will be the crucial point here. But even a failed steamdeck will bring better gaming to linux on the desktop, so i am quiet happy with how things develop right now.
BielFPs Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI would be really surprised if Valve were unable to persuade those people to enable their anticheat to work with Proton.

The fact that they don't need to is the key point, remember that most of the profit from steam comes from Windows users so Valve isn't losing anything from developers not supporting Proton.
AussieEevee Oct 5, 2021
GTA V is such a pain to run under Proton. If your computer, like mine, is underpowered and not running a high enough graphics card, it doesn't seem to work right.

In Windows, I get about 45-60FPS, depending on what's going on... with most settings turned to low.

In Linux, I get 5FPS, same settings.

GTA is the only game I've played where the Linux performance is worse than the Windows performance, so I chalk it up to either my card being rubbish (It is. GTX 960 2GB) or the game itself.

Of course, none of this really matters to the Steam Deck, but I just wanted to ramble about this..

But yeah, in my experience, most games tend to work unless broken by anti-cheat... and this list confirms that.
AussieEevee Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: BielFPs
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI would be really surprised if Valve were unable to persuade those people to enable their anticheat to work with Proton.

The fact that they don't need to is the key point, remember that most of the profit from steam comes from Windows users so Valve isn't losing anything from developers not supporting Proton.
Financially, no. But Gaben seems to have made it his mission to make gaming on Linux a reality, so I would still expect Valve to try.
Purple Library Guy Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: BielFPs
Quoting: Purple Library GuyI would be really surprised if Valve were unable to persuade those people to enable their anticheat to work with Proton.

The fact that they don't need to is the key point, remember that most of the profit from steam comes from Windows users so Valve isn't losing anything from developers not supporting Proton.
Huh. I could have sworn I'd heard something on the interwebs about Valve planning on releasing some kind of device that ran games on Linux, and hoping to sell quite a few of them. The "Steam Duck" or something. Maybe I was dreaming it.
BielFPs Oct 5, 2021
Quoting: AussieEeveeFinancially, no. But Gaben seems to have made it his mission to make gaming on Linux a reality, so I would still expect Valve to try.
Personally I think "his mission" as you said is the same as it has always been: Keeping Steam on the throne of the game stores.

Linux it's more of a guarantee that they can be independent of their potential competitor (aka Microsoft) if they need to, and while I wish your opinion to be the truth I really think that this vision of "Valve's being the savior of Linux on desktop" that the community seems to have a bit too much.

Which of course doesn't change the fact that their efforts are benefiting the Linux gaming for sure, so it's something of win-win situation.
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