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Linux user share on Steam continues rising — highest for years again

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Valve has put out their usual monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey and it's looking like good news for Linux and Steam Deck once again.

We've seen the user share rise up to 1.23%, making it the highest point in multiple years (again). If we use Valve's last monthly active user count, that points the monthly active Linux user count somewhere around 1,623,600. See more on our Steam Tracker. Linux has remained at 1% or above for at least a full year now too.

According to the survey when filtering just to Linux, here are the most popular distributions:

  • Arch Linux 64 bit 13.87% +2.45%
  • Manjaro Linux 64 bit 11.40% +1.29%
  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64 bit 9.78% -0.12%
  • Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS 64 bit 9.28% -0.45%
  • SteamOS Holo 64 bit 7.60% +0.02%
  • Linux Mint 20.3 64 bit 6.29% -0.16%
  • Freedesktop.org 21.08.14 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 5.29% -0.76%
  • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 4.90% +0.11%
  • Other 31.60% -2.36%

So we're seeing Valve's SteamOS now make up 7.6% of the Linux gaming audience on Steam, which is a pretty good early showing for the Steam Deck. In terms of hardware, on the Linux side the Steam Deck appears to be the most popular device as it's now top of the list of GPUs used too.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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43 comments
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KohlyKohl Aug 2, 2022
Quoting: Highball
Quoting: M@GOidIf SteamOS is 7.6% of ~1,623,600 million Linux users, it is safe to say Valve delivered about 123,000 units so far?

I think you can say, at least 123K units. If you've participated in the Steam survey on a different computer already, it's unlikely the steam client would have offered you a chance to take the suvey on your steam deck. I just got my Steam Deck a week ago and I never got the survey. So I would say, that 123k is a mix of gamers who haven't take the survey in over a year, the few who forced the survey, and those who've never taken the survey, i.e. console only gamers.

 
sed -i -e '/"SurveyDate"/ s/"[0-9].*"/"'$(date +%Y-%m-%d -d "1 year ago")'"/' .steam/debian-installation/config/config.vdf

Just in case anybody needs it.

You can get the survey on all of your devices. Last survey I got it on my Laptop first, then desktop, and when I went on my deck it was on there as well.
AndroidNougat7 Aug 2, 2022
I'm very happy to see, that the Steam Deck does his job very well.

i finally got the mail at July 25, received my Deck on July 29 and i really love the Steam Deck.

I played Steam games for the first time since 2020. I'm back in the gaming sector :D

PS: i ordered two 512GB microSD cards for my Steam Deck (with the 3rd 512GB microSD card on the way)
PPS: i'm very happy, that i switched the OS on all my PCs to Linux in 2020. It was the best decision in my life, because almost all games works great on Linux finally!
Philadelphus Aug 2, 2022
Quoting: Eike
Quoting: ValckAnother part of the equation may be that usually software comes with a complete and fairly decent English localization, if it wasn't translated from there to begin with.

Is that true, though? I remember Debian making an effort to translate its texts into proper English, as large parts had been written by non-native speakers... Opinions from native speakers on this?

Well, I'm a native English speaker* and I've been using Debian since 2016, and I can't say I've ever run across any text that struck me as odd, so…I guess it worked?

*And a bit of a pedant when it comes to grammar.

Quoting: TcheyOr some shortcuts like, End for Endurance, becomes "Fin".
OK, that's pretty funny, though I hope you get better translations in the future!
Pengling Aug 3, 2022
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Quoting: TcheyLike, Close = "fermer" when it should be "proche", or the opposite. Or, Character being "Caractère" when it should be "Personnage". Or some shortcuts like, End for Endurance, becomes "Fin".
Obligatory link about the pitfalls of bad localisations.

QuoteI once did a translation about a space ship simulator - in this context space is translated as ruimte (space as in universe). The client copied and pasted the word ruimte to a message popping up every 3 seconds, instructing the user to press SPACE (as in space bar) to jump, without consulting me beforehand. The result was that the user was instructed to press the universe every so many seconds.


Last edited by Pengling on 3 August 2022 at 2:40 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Aug 3, 2022
Quoting: Pengling
Quoting: TcheyLike, Close = "fermer" when it should be "proche", or the opposite. Or, Character being "Caractère" when it should be "Personnage". Or some shortcuts like, End for Endurance, becomes "Fin".
Obligatory link about the pitfalls of bad localisations.

QuoteI once did a translation about a space ship simulator - in this context space is translated as ruimte (space as in universe). The client copied and pasted the word ruimte to a message popping up every 3 seconds, instructing the user to press SPACE (as in space bar) to jump, without consulting me beforehand. The result was that the user was instructed to press the universe every so many seconds.
Heh. Thinking of big mistakes, that linked website is designed in such a way that if I hit the "+" button enough to make the print pleasantly comfortable to my eyes, the column with the actual text disappears, swallowed by the sidebars.
tuubi Aug 3, 2022
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyThinking of big mistakes, that linked website is designed in such a way that if I hit the "+" button enough to make the print pleasantly comfortable to my eyes, the column with the actual text disappears, swallowed by the sidebars.
If you use Firefox, have you tried Reader mode? Hit the page icon at the right of the address bar, or Ctrl+Alt+R. I think Chrome/Chromium has a similar feature as well.
skinnyraf Aug 3, 2022
Quoting: Goldpaw
Quoting: M@GOidIf SteamOS is 7.6% of ~1,623,600 million Linux users, it is safe to say Valve delivered about 123,000 units so far?

I don't think so?

SteamOS has existed since 2013, and even though it didn't really get competitive in terms of gaming before 4.0 with the inclusion of Proton, it's still available to install on any machine that meets the hardware requirements.

So a large portion is probably Steam Decks, but I wouldn't expect all of it to be.

It explicitly states "SteamOS Holo", which is 3.x, not 2.x Brewmaster, so it's definitely purely Steam Deck users (apart from a few brave souls, who installed vanilla Holo on other PCs).

Edit: Holo (Arch based) is also fundamentally different from Brewmaster (Debian based), so I doubt it would be pooled together. Brewmaster is so ancient, too, that many native games newer than 2020 don't work due to glibc issues.


Last edited by skinnyraf on 3 August 2022 at 6:35 am UTC
amatai Aug 3, 2022
I am wondering which part of the increase is due to the steam deck. That require a bit of algebra but that would be interesting.
mr-victory Aug 3, 2022
Quoting: amataiI am wondering which part of the increase is due to the steam deck. That require a bit of algebra but that would be interesting.
Steam Deck can be tracked accurately from its GPU, which is currently the most popular GPU among Linux users.


Last edited by mr-victory on 3 August 2022 at 8:28 am UTC
Eike Aug 3, 2022
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Quoting: mr-victory
Quoting: amataiI am wondering which part of the increase is due to the steam deck. That require a bit of algebra but that would be interesting.
Steam Deck can be tracked accurately from its GPU, which is currently the most popular GPU among Linux users.

This sounds like some 50%, but it's at 7.56%.

... with a remarkable -0.01%, so not too accurate either, I fear.


Last edited by Eike on 3 August 2022 at 8:33 am UTC
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