The monthly Steam Hardware & Software Survey is here for January 2024, and while there was a drop for both Linux and macOS we're still seeing Linux be firmly in second place on Steam now. Interestingly, this month we saw both English and Simplified Chinese (the two most popular languages on Steam) fall with Russian seeing the biggest language jump (+0.60%).
Here's the operating systems overall:
- Windows 96.52% +0.12%
- Linux 1.95% -0.02%
- macOS 1.54% -0.09%
With our updated graph found on our Steam Tracker:
Who honestly thought it would happen so soon? A couple of years ago it was thought to be impossible to see Linux overtake macOS. Of course, then we had the Steam Deck come along - which has a full Linux desktop mode, which has been what's pushing the numbers up.
Here's the most popular Linux distributions on Steam:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit 42.12% +1.59%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 7.76% -0.09%
- Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS 64 bit 6.80% -0.24%
- Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 5.82% +0.60%
- Linux Mint 21.2 64 bit 3.63% -1.07%
- Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.48% -0.16%
- Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.76% -0.27%
- Other 27.64% -0.35%
From the survey we can also see that 70.49% of people on Linux use an AMD processor, and 42.18% on Linux use the Steam Deck so the majority have stuck with SteamOS but it seems a few are using a different Linux distribution on their Deck.
See more on Steam's Survey.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: EikeWhy do you think so?Because it is.
Wow.
Quoting: CatKillerAs to why it is worse, fitting a curve is explicitly enforcing a particular model on the data. There is no model here; it is simply a record of sampled users over time. Curve-fitting would be wildly inappropriate.
And you don't think developments in real life might be subject to mathematical description?
In my humble opinion, everybody with a bit of a mathematical heart should feel their toe nails roll up on the graphics.
If the linear line is only there to show that the numbers are rising, you could write it next to the curve as well instead: "These numbers are rising." Which would make very clear how much information this actually caries beyond what everybody can see in the actual numbers shown in the graph.
What the linear line is nebulizing is the actual change in trend, somewhere between the announcement and the release of the Steam Deck. Things were constant beforehand. Things went up since then. There's no rise since 2018, there's a rise since 2021.
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Quoting: constYes, they exist and are sold. I know that. Still, people living in certain regions might overestimate their impact.
I agree with that. While I did see some Chromebook adds lately here in Germany, after like a decade (I don't know) of only hearing about them from the US, I still don't think they play an important role here.
Last edited by Eike on 2 February 2024 at 5:03 pm UTC
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Quoting: EikeIn my humble opinion, everybody with a bit of a mathematical heart should feel their toe nails roll up on the graphics.
It's a shame that you don't understand the concept of a trend line, but I'm not your statistics teacher.
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Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: EikeIn my humble opinion, everybody with a bit of a mathematical heart should feel their toe nails roll up on the graphics.
It's a shame that you don't understand the concept of a trend line, but I'm not your statistics teacher.
I have to brag here: My statistics professor wanted to make me his tutor while I was still visiting his lectures.
But feel free to show me what supports you, e.g. from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trend_line
I'm open to learning.
Last edited by Eike on 2 February 2024 at 5:24 pm UTC
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Quoting: EikeI'm open to learning.No, you aren't. You just don't like being told that your chuffing stupid idea is chuffing stupid.
You can fit those data points to an exponential curve. You can fit those points to a polynomial curve. You can fit those points to a sinusoidal curve. Absolutely none of those curves provide a model that has any predictive power to define the relationship between the date and what proportion of Steam users will be sampled using Linux, nor the proportion that would be sampled using Mac or Windows. It's just pointless fappery.
The trend is upwards, just like it's upwards for Windows and downwards for Mac. As shown by the trend line.
Were your statistical analysis skills as great as you claim, you would already know all of this; which would make suggesting such fappery even more chuffing stupid.
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Quoting: pleasereadthemanualA completely different opinion here:
It might be that gaming on macOS becomes more of a thing, but rather than being through Steam, it's through the App Store, or the developer's website. If you've gone to the trouble of porting the game to Metal, you might as well use the App Store.
I'm not sure if there are incentives to use the App Store over Steam. It seems like they get the same cut. I know macOS programs from the App Store tend to be gutted compared to programs distributed outside of it because of restrictions (DaVinci Resolve being one such example, Affinity Suite being another).
Another thought: I would be completely okay with Linux hitting 15% and 14% of that being Steam Deck users. Unlike ChromeOS, Valve has made absolutely no effort to distinguish between the Steam Deck and Linux proper. They're all just one system. On the hardware survey, I would assume ChromeOS just shows up as Linux.
ChromeOS (now that Google has dropped Stadia) is making a push toward Proton. In November, Google partnered with ProtonDB: https://www.protondb.com/news/chromebook-reports
So...it's gonna be an interesting few years.
I have literally said that many times yet nobody listens here...
Mac gaming is moving to Mac App Store.
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Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: EikeI'm open to learning.No, you aren't. You just don't like being told that your chuffing stupid idea is chuffing stupid.
You can fit those data points to an exponential curve. You can fit those points to a polynomial curve. You can fit those points to a sinusoidal curve. Absolutely none of those curves provide a model that has any predictive power to define the relationship between the date and what proportion of Steam users will be sampled using Linux, nor the proportion that would be sampled using Mac or Windows. It's just pointless fappery.
I don't want to predict, nor did I say so. I want to describe what has happened.
Quoting: CatKillerThe trend is upwards, just like it's upwards for Windows and downwards for Mac. As shown by the trend line.
The trend is upwards - but it wasn't for years. Half of the curve looks quite constant to me. If you're thinking that describing a constant function by an upward trend line is appropriate, I'm asking for sources for this. Derogatory terms don't convince me, by the way.
The point of this is that something has happened, somewhere in 2021, which had and still has quite some impact on Linux for gaming adoption, and is showing in the numbers since then.
The trend has changed. That's what the trend line is missing.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: EikeI don't want to predict, nor did I say so.
That's what fitting the data to a curve is.
QuoteI want to describe what has happened.
That's what the trend line does.
Which you already know because of your super statistical analysis skills, obviously.
Should you wish to examine the positive trend line for any range of the data, you already can. Slapping an arbitrary curve onto the data is pure fappery.
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Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: EikeI don't want to predict, nor did I say so.
That's what fitting the data to a curve is.
I guess we found the misunderstanding. Of course, I wouldn't extrapolate this into the future. Nobody forces us to do that.
Quoting: CatKillerQuoteI want to describe what has happened.
That's what the trend line does.
As said and shown - not for like half of the curve.
The trend has changed, can we agree on that?
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Quoting: EikeI guess we found the misunderstanding. Of course, I wouldn't extrapolate this into the future. Nobody forces us to do that.
That is literally the whole point of matching a data set to a curve.
QuoteAs said and shown - not for like half of the curve.
The trend has changed, can we agree on that?
No, we cannot. The trend has always been positive. The gradient is steeper now than it was in the past, but that is not a change in trend.
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