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The latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey is out for June 2022, putting the Linux user share at one of its highest ever points and likely thanks to the rise of the Steam Deck and SteamOS. As shown on our dedicated Steam Tracker, it's been trending upwards for quite a while but this latest figure is a pretty good showing.

As of June 2022, Linux is sitting at 1.18% of the Steam user share.

Now, that doesn't sound like a lot on paper, but it puts the monthly active Linux user count at around 1,557,600 at least (based on when Valve last gave the monthly active user count).

Here's the breakdown of the most popular Linux systems:

  • "Arch Linux" 64 bit 11.42% -1.43%
  • "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 10.11% -0.98%
  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64 bit 9.90% +1.86%
  • Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS 64 bit 9.73% -2.02%
  • "SteamOS Holo" 64 bit 7.58% +2.35%
  • Linux Mint 20.3 64 bit 6.45% +0.48%
  • Description:Freedesktop.org 21.08.14 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.05% +6.05%
  • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 4.79% +4.79%
  • Other 33.96% -11.11%

So you can pretty plainly see that the Steam Deck with SteamOS is already rising up the ranks, as one of the most popular Linux gaming systems on Steam's survey with it already making up well over 7% of Linux players which is a nice increase from the 5% from May 2022.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Misc, Steam
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CatKiller Jul 2, 2022
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Quoting: PenglingAnd I presume that the "Other" category also includes some of the other Ubuntu flavours, as well, unless they roll those in with regular Ubuntu?
I don't know about all the flavours, but Kubuntu has Ubuntu as its LSB name. Other will include those users on older (still supported, generally) LTS releases, or development releases, or Rolling Rhino, and any other version that doesn't meet the usage cutoff to be included in the named list.
Eike Jul 2, 2022
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Quoting: denyasisSo that's about 118,000 Deck Users. I guess that's a good number for sales, but I guess I was expecting the over all Linux % to be more positively affected by the Deck. I guess it'll take more time. Hopefully it translates into more mainstream Linux use as well.

We were too many before already... ;-)
elmapul Jul 2, 2022
i dont know if my math is wrong but...
1,18% of 1,557,600 is ~18379
7.58% of 18379 is ~ 1393

so the number of steam decks is just that?

what im doing wrong?
Eike Jul 2, 2022
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Quoting: elmapuli dont know if my math is wrong but...
1,18% of 1,557,600 is ~18379
7.58% of 18379 is ~ 1393

so the number of steam decks is just that?

what im doing wrong?

1.5 million already is the 1,18%. They're all Linux users. The whole number of active Steam users is > 100 million.
Pengling Jul 2, 2022
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Quoting: CatKillerI don't know about all the flavours, but Kubuntu has Ubuntu as its LSB name.
Oops! I thought that Xubuntu used "Xubuntu" for the LSB name, but it turns out that it uses Ubuntu as well.

Thanks so much for the clarification.
elmapul Jul 2, 2022
Quoting: mphuZIt's a shame that Valve hasn't released the SteamOS desktop distribution yet.
And even the new Big Picture is missing in the beta version of Steam.

maybe that is a good thing, if people start making comparissions on unsuported hardware, steamOS may get an bad reputation
elmapul Jul 2, 2022
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: elmapuli dont know if my math is wrong but...
1,18% of 1,557,600 is ~18379
7.58% of 18379 is ~ 1393

so the number of steam decks is just that?

what im doing wrong?

1.5 million already is the 1,18%. They're all Linux users. The whole number of active Steam users is > 100 million.
ok im blind
Eike Jul 2, 2022
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Quoting: elmapul

The number was worth repeating. We're not many by percentage, but we're still over a million active Linux users on Steam!
WMan22 Jul 2, 2022
Quoting: denyasisSo that's about 118,000 Deck Users. I guess that's a good number for sales, but I guess I was expecting the over all Linux % to be more positively affected by the Deck. I guess it'll take more time. Hopefully it translates into more mainstream Linux use as well.

A lot of people are just waiting for the mere opportunity to pick up their Steam Deck. The platform's rolling out so slowly, though I'd prefer they do it this way over just bulk releasing them and have scalpers snatch em all up and run into the same problem anyway.


Last edited by WMan22 on 2 July 2022 at 3:52 pm UTC
denyasis Jul 2, 2022
Quoting: WMan22
Quoting: denyasisSo that's about 118,000 Deck Users. I guess that's a good number for sales, but I guess I was expecting the over all Linux % to be more positively affected by the Deck. I guess it'll take more time. Hopefully it translates into more mainstream Linux use as well.

A lot of people are just waiting for the mere opportunity to pick up their Steam Deck. The platform's rolling out so slowly, though I'd prefer they do it this way over just bulk releasing them and have scalpers snatch em all up and run into the same problem anyway.

Very true. I totally agree. In the Deck revenue article a few weeks ago, I estimated a minimum of 75,000 basic deck sales, so 118,000 seems realistic. I think for me all the hype we hear about it makes it seem like everyone is buying them (not just waiting), so I imagined the sales numbers / Linux users would be higher. Especially with Valve announcing a ramp up in production. It's still, what, 8000 ish Decks a week, which is pretty good.

I guess I internally overlook the slow roll out. Which is probably the purpose of the hype from Valve's end.


Last edited by denyasis on 2 July 2022 at 4:32 pm UTC
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