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.
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
Quoting: mr-victoryQuoting: 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
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.Ok, with some assumption and quick mental math steamdeck is responsible than a bit less of 10% of the increase of Linux share. As the proportion of steam deck is mostly stable inside Linux it participate to the grow according to its ratio.
Good news is that Linux is still over 1% and growing if you count steam deck separately even if Steam Deck outgrow Linux desktop growth.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyMore likely, you skipped the article from last month.Quoting: WorMzySurprising to see such a big increase for Arch (and Manjaro) percentages while SteamOS remains almost static. I wonder if Valve have changed how SteamOS identifies itself, or if more people are making the jump to Arch-based distros for some reason.I too was wondering why such a tiny increase in SteamOS. Especially since I remember last time there was an article like this, I swear SteamOS was at about 5%, meaning the current amount is a 50% increase since then, so did both the articles and the increase skip a month? Weird. It's not like they had a one month hiatus on delivering Steam Decks.
Quoting: EikeWho knows? Maybe the remaining 0.04% Linux users really are crazy enough to get SteamOS 3.x running on another computer, we are talking about Linux users after all.. nah. Knowing Valve, it's probably a glitch. Just look at the language changes for Linux users: some, like Ukrainian and Japanese doubled their percentage just in the last month, it's so bad.Quoting: mr-victorySteam 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.
Quoting: adolsonIn any case, I think I'm too old to care much about any of this anymore./me tramples all over the lawn.
Quoting: LightkeyMaybe the remaining 0.04% Linux users really are crazy enough to get SteamOS 3.x running on another computer, we are talking about Linux users after all..I did that last month and the diff was %0.01 back then

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