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A look at the top 100 Steam games on Linux - January 2022 edition

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To begin 2022, let's take a fresh look at the current top 100 Steam games and see how well (or not) the run on Linux.

As part of a series we shall be doing, where we first took a proper look at this back in October 2021, including games that are both Native to Linux and Windows games that are run through the Steam Play Proton compatibility layer. With help from ProtonDB reports to investigate.

Something to keep in mind is that while the top 5-10 games doesn't change too often on Steam, the rest do fluctuate quite a lot as it often depends on some of the bigger releases that appear. We are once again going by the numbers on SteamDB using their 24 hour peak-player count. Take this as your snapshot of how things are a month before the Steam Deck releases to see what you might expect to work or not.

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
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive 802,899 Linux Native
Dota 2 723,708 Linux Native
PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS 336,367 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Apex Legends 216,295 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Grand Theft Auto V 142,431 Works with Proton
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT 137,210 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Team Fortress 2 127,787 Linux Native
Rust 110,963 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
New World 109,256 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Football Manager 2022 84,705 Works with Proton
ARK: Survival Evolved 84,566 Linux Native and Works with Proton
Wallpaper Engine 76,064 Sort-of works with KDE Plasma
MIR4 70,919 Broken
Warframe 70,883 Works with Proton
FIFA 22 70,373 Works with Proton
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 70,072 Works with Proton
Destiny 2 69,132 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege 65,840 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
FINAL FANTASY XIV Online 58,414 Works with Proton
Project Zomboid 57,533 Linux Native
7 Days to Die 56,932 Linux Native
Farming Simulator 22 55,657 Works with Proton
Dead by Daylight 55,320 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Terraria 51,900 Linux Native
Rocket League 51,503 Works with Proton*
DayZ 49,610 Works with Proton
Valheim 48,871 Linux Native
Sid Meier's Civilization VI 48,626 Linux Native
SUPER PEOPLE CBT 48,160 Broken
Halo Infinite 47,576 Broken
PAYDAY 2 46,869 Linux Native
Euro Truck Simulator 2 46,764 Linux Native
Unturned 44,374 Linux Native
World of Tanks Blitz 43,230 Works with Proton
Stardew Valley 42,350 Linux Native
Don't Starve Together 40,850 Linux Native
Hearts of Iron IV 40,452 Linux Native
Garry's Mod 38,316 Linux Native
War Thunder 38,194 Linux Native
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition 36,657 Works with Proton
Red Dead Redemption 2 35,314 Works with Proton
Sea of Thieves 33,711 Works with Proton*
Phasmophobia 33,508 Works with Proton*
Hunt: Showdown 30,944 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
The Elder Scrolls Online 28,763 Works with Proton
Total War: WARHAMMER II 28,718 Linux Native
Left 4 Dead 2 28,591 Linux Native
Monster Hunter: World 28,102 Works with Proton
The Sims 4 26,391 Works with Proton
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord 25,881 Works with Proton
Bloons TD 6 25,531 Works with Proton
VRChat 25,314 Works with Proton
Europa Universalis IV 24,501 Linux Native
Black Desert 24,149 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
雀魂麻将(MahjongSoul) 23,854 Works with Proton
The Forest 23,626 Works with Proton
Battlefield V 23,484 Works with Proton
F1 2021 23,351 Unstable with Proton, has issues*
Cyberpunk 2077 22,964 Works with Proton
Satisfactory 22,875 Works with Proton
Sid Meier's Civilization V 22,717 Linux Native
Stellaris 22,422 Linux Native
RimWorld 22,180 Linux Native
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 22,077 Linux Native*
Fallout 4 21,730 Works with Proton
Cities: Skylines 21,316 Linux Native
DARK SOULS III 21,295 Works with Proton
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition 21,207 Works with Proton*
tModLoader 20,663 Linux Native
Brawlhalla 20,611 Works with Proton*
Forza Horizon 4 20,608 Unstable with Proton
It Takes Two 20,595 Works with Proton
NBA 2K22 20,079 Works with Proton
Forza Horizon 5 19,778 Unstable with Proton
Age of Empires IV 19,775 Unstable with Proton
Cookie Clicker 19,163 Works with Proton
SMITE 18,911 Works with Proton GE
Football Manager 2021 18,730 Works with Proton
Arma 3 18,396 Works with Proton
Crusader Kings III 17,797 Linux Native
鬼谷八荒 Tale of Immortal 17,579 Works with Proton
Counter-Strike 17,294 Linux Native
Factorio 16,278 Linux Native
Icarus 16,270 Broken
Path of Exile 15,741 Works with Proton
Deep Rock Galactic 15,648 Works with Proton
Dying Light 15,569 Linux Native
Among Us 15,061 Works with Proton
Raft 14,448 Works with Proton
Ready or Not 14,184 Works with Proton
Battlefield 2042 14,174 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 13,949 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Oxygen Not Included 13,912 Linux Native
Divinity: Original Sin 2 13,693 Works with Proton
SCUM 13,672 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 13,579 Works with Proton
Soundpad 13,568 Broken
theHunter: Call of the Wild 13,555 Works with Proton
Conan Exiles 13,532 Broken (Anti-Cheat)
Gunfire Reborn 13,205 Works with Proton

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.
  • Rocket League works but was removed from Steam for new players. However, it does work with Wine (which Proton is built from) if you use something like the Heroic Games Launcher to get it from Epic.
  • Sea of Thieves voice comms don't work.
  • Phasmophobia just recently seemed to fix the voice comms with Proton.
  • We did not count Myth of Empires, as Steam delisted it due to ongoing legal troubles.
  • F1 2021 had some fixes for AMD GPUs lately but still seem pretty problematic overall.
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is Linux Native, but the latest DLC is Windows-only but that does work with Proton.
  • Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition works but online multiplayer can desync unless you do a small fix.
  • Brawlhalla added EAC, which you can disable and they're trying to support Proton with it.

With not long to go until the Steam Deck releases, hopefully Valve still have a few releases of Proton to improve things further. Anti-Cheat continues to be the biggest hurdle for Linux gaming and the Steam Deck. We've not seen many titles at all enable it officially, with the current list being quite small. We do expect that to change if the Steam Deck is a success though, and we fully expect it to be - as long as Valve can get enough units produced.

A few false-flags have appeared over the last few months like Rainbox Six Siege suddenly working, however do remember that until Valve or the developer actually confirm it, they will likely (and it did) stop working due to the anti-cheat.

Personally, I've not been able to get DayZ to work myself (now it's supported) but I know plenty of others have. Even with the suggested fixes, I just get a black screen, which is a shame. In some ways Proton is still a bit of a minefield like that, hopefully a solution will be found.

The most important part — the numbers: we're currently seeing around 76% of the top 100 (based on peak player counts) as of January 2022 working on Linux with Native Linux games and Windows games in Proton taken together. So, things are looking pretty good ahead of the Steam Deck launch since it will use SteamOS 3 which is based on Arch Linux.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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44 comments
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elmapul Jan 4, 2022
how many of those are online games that work thanks to valve anti cheat aproach?
rustybroomhandle Jan 4, 2022
Quoting: elmapulhow many of those are online games that work thanks to valve anti cheat aproach?

So far, 1. Some of those have announced they will be switching on anticheat for Proton, but even then it's only a tiny few.

EDIT: there is 1, not 0


Last edited by rustybroomhandle on 5 January 2022 at 9:49 am UTC
Mohandevir Jan 4, 2022
I don't know to what extent it gets and it might just be an impression, but it feels like there is a tendency where Protondb shows some/many games running better on AMD gpus, probably powered by Valve's Steam Deck development. This is something that I witness a lot more often, lately.

Based on that, not taking into account the AC support and considering all the efforts put by Valve on such a dedicated hardware, I suspect (obviously) that the Steam Deck will have the best support ootb, of all hardware configurations. We should keep in mind that the desktop support will always lag behind the Steam Deck. It's not by lack of efforts, it's just for obvious reasons (fragmentation/hardware combinations). 76% overall in what I consider a "worst case scenario" is great, imo.

It's been already a couple of years since I stopped believing in the "year of the Linux desktop" gimmick.
CyborgZeta Jan 4, 2022
Of that list, Left 4 Dead 2 is the only title I play.
foobrew Jan 4, 2022
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Keep in mind that some of the games on that list which are marked as "Broken (Anti-Cheat)" do actually work just fine as long as you don't try to connect to official servers. Case in point, Conan Exiles runs fantastic under proton and you can connect just fine to non-official servers (or run your own).

I'm not disagreeing with the "Broken" designation but just wanted to point out that it may run just fine with caveats. This is generally how games like this are classified on Proton and Wine's DB's - something like "Runs (with issues)" etc.
denyasis Jan 4, 2022
I wonder if there articles out there talking about how many of those games run on windows, lol?

But seriously, that's a case for some optimism. Hopefully the console works out ok.
SuperTux Jan 5, 2022
Quoting: dpanterIf you use a tool like ProtonUp-Qt (AppImage), the time it takes to install Proton GE is reduced to essentially your download speed for ~400 MB and a few seconds for the automated installtion.
This awesome tool supports downloading and installing many other things for Steam/Heroic/Lutris as well, Proton-GE, Lutris-Wine, Luxtorpeda to name but a few.

Somehow missed this tool, its really neat! Even easily links to the change logs :).
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: pleasereadthemanualI've heard some strange rumors about Valve holding onto an "internal" version of Proton that is supposedly much different to what regular users have access to, but I've dismissed it as people misunderstanding something about ProtonDB.
Valve 100% said they have Proton work that's not public, but we don't know if any of that has been released since. This was in a Steamworks video in July https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q_C5KVJbUw

At minute 2:21...
https://youtu.be/5Q_C5KVJbUw?t=141
Spyker Jan 5, 2022
I can see things improving on my side.
I have some games that were not correctly supported by Proton (Grid 2 for example) and they are now working perfectly with the latest Proton Experimental release.
I'm also confident we will have another compatibility boost this year thanks to the Steam Deck (mine is still listed at Q1, I can't wait to order it).
Nocifer Jan 5, 2022
Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]That's the infinite acceleration I'm talking about, any actual AoE2 player who tries to play this game will be at a severe handicap, and simply put you will not be able to play this game competitively (like it's meant to be played) from just this one minor bug that's confirmed through out both positive and negative reviews on ProtonDB.

I'd expect that this kind of bug is distro-agnostic, and thus a very different case from what you initially said about games not installing or running reliably across distros (which is not really a thing unless maybe a specific distro has gone out of its way to do some very specific stupid crap behind the scenes - but then, the only real solution is to give that distro the finger and switch to a better one).

Quoting: [Linuxtayshady]Yet this game carries a 'Gold' rating on it, despite it needing tweaks to play multiplayer, despite Alt-Tab making the game change to a Windowed mode, despite a very crucial input bug.

ProtonDB is an unofficial curating/ranking system based on user reviews - the keyword here being "user", which can mean anything from "experienced dude who'd make an excellent professional QA tester" to "clueless LTT fanboy who can't tell their Windows from their windows" to anything in-between. Steam is going to be using their own curation/ranking system for the Steam Deck which will presumably utilize proper QA procedures, and thus games like AoE2 will never make it into the equivalent of "Gold" until they're properly fixed.
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