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The Steam Hardware & Software Survey is out for October 2024, and the Linux user share has gone back up again to exactly 2%.

Overall:

  • Windows: 96.61% -0.23%
  • Linux 2.00% +0.13%
  • macOS: 1.39% +0.10%

Quite likely we're seeing the drop of Windows because the English language share overall went up by 8.09%, with Simplified Chinese dropping by 1%. We generally see the Linux share drop when Simplified Chinese on Steam rises, which it had done for two months in a row. So this seems like things going back to a more normal position.

All of the data can be seen on our dedicated Steam Tracker.

On the Linux side here's the most used distributions:

  • SteamOS Holo 64 bit (Steam Deck) 36.79% -2.41%
  • Arch Linux 64 bit 9.54% +0.88%
  • Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.16% +0.13%
  • Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS 64 bit 5.10% +1.07%
  • Linux Mint 22 64 bit 3.96% +0.23%
  • Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.33% +0.29%
  • Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit (Steam Snap) 3.06% -0.24%
  • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.92% +2.92%
  • Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 2.89% +0.17%
  • Other 27.43% -1.84%

Update: 2/12/2024 - Valve seemed to have adjusted the numbers after publishing, going by the Internet Archive here's what they put later:

  • SteamOS Holo 64 bit 36.91% -2.29%
  • Arch Linux 64 bit 8.86% +0.20%
  • Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.29% +0.26%
  • Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS 64 bit 4.80% +0.77%
  • Linux Mint 22 64 bit 4.24% +0.51%
  • Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit 3.78% +0.48%
  • Manjaro Linux 64 bit 3.03% -0.01%
  • Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.73% +2.73%
  • Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 2.56% -0.16%
  • Other 26.80% -2.47%

See more on the Steam survey.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly.
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25 comments
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Fantastic.

Looking at the trend over time, it's clearly maintaining steady growth, so we're heading in the right direction, given enough time we might even see 3%.
dpanter Nov 2
Quoting: gradyvuckovic3
Clearly you're forgetting Valves threephobia...
_Mars Nov 2
Quoting: dpanter
Quoting: gradyvuckovic3
Clearly you're forgetting Valves threephobia...

Well, I wouldn't complain if we went straight to 4%
_wojtek Nov 2
I wonder... couldn't Valve just collect the stats without the "survey prompt" to get saner results?
Highball Nov 2
Quoting: _wojtekI wonder... couldn't Valve just collect the stats without the "survey prompt" to get saner results?

Yes, and I'm sure they do. Valve can track the number of hours you put into a game per platform. When you make a review about a particular game, if more than 50% of that time was played on a Steam Deck, Valve will tag your review to reflect that. Valve's telemetry is definitely detailed enough to tell us how many hours each day are spent on Linux. Right, Valve collects telemetry accounting for the number of hours played per game each week on the Steam Deck. Then Valve gives us a stats page for the most played games on the Steam Deck per week.
Pyrate Nov 2
Quoting: _wojtekI wonder... couldn't Valve just collect the stats without the "survey prompt" to get saner results?

And I only received that prompt a couple months ago, despite being on Linux since last March.
It's the Summer of Lin-- no, wait, it's the Winter of Linux, baby!
CatKiller Nov 2
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Quoting: _wojtekI wonder... couldn't Valve just collect the stats without the "survey prompt" to get saner results?

They're collecting information about their users and publishing it for any third party that wants to use it for any reason. Whether or not permission is strictly legally required for that, it's better to err on the side of getting the permission than not.

They likely also have very detailed moment-to-moment internal data about exactly who's using their network & services, but they aren't sharing that.
Naib Nov 2
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very nice... but :( starting to get enough points to fit to a sigmoid... if that inflection point is correct, are we looking at like 3% as the settling point
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Last edited by Naib on 2 November 2024 at 2:54 pm UTC
Lamdarer Nov 2
Quoting: dpanter
Quoting: gradyvuckovic3
Clearly you're forgetting Valves threephobia...
We got SteamOS 3 so I believe Valve is cured ;D
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