The best Linux distributions for gaming in 2026

Here is your up to date list of what distro you should be picking if you want to start gaming on Linux in 2026. The latest edition of you telling me I'm wrong.

Back in the 2025 edition of the article I suggested Kubuntu, and while it worked reasonably well overall it feels a bit like an unloved child. I used it for a long time and was mostly happy with it, but times change and so does the Linux and open source world.

Despite what you read elsewhere - you don't need to go with the latest random "gaming" distribution. The best thing to do is to stick with the crowd, and go with the bigger more well-known distributions. Most "gaming" distributions just throw a few random tweaks and a new theme on top of something else, they can usually just be ignored. Don't fall for their hype. There are literally 100s of Linux distributions, so GamingOnLinux is here to help you just cut through all that noise.

Desktop

My overall recommendation for 2026 on desktop? Fedora KDE. Fedora is generally a lot more up to date than Ubuntu / Kubuntu while not being constantly bleeding-edge like Arch Linux, and apart from an unfortunate snafu with a Mesa driver update, it has been one of the most pleasant and stable experiences I've ever had in all my years running Linux. With Fedora KDE also now promoted to a front-row seat too, it has never been a better time for it.

You don't get the multiple-year long-term support that you do from the likes of Ubuntu, so you need to jump between Fedora versions more often but that's not exactly a bad thing. Fedora is a lot more leading-edge with updates, and for gaming with system updates that's actually quite a nice bonus.

Fedora do a new release around every 6 months, with ongoing updates to each release for around 13 months. So realistically, you can do a major upgrade only once a year and be done with it.

An annoying downside to Fedora — Installing NVIDIA GPU drivers on Fedora still needs more steps than it should. Hopefully with the rise of better open source drivers for NVIDIA eventually this will be a thing of the past. That, or the Fedora team just make it easier out of the box. Not a huge downside though, with the right instructions for GPU driver updates you can be done in a couple of minutes.

Handhelds and TV PCs

An addition for this year is the Handheld and TV PCs suggestion, because it's a rapidly growing segment of the market. With the Steam Deck, Legion Go, ROG Ally and many more. That and small form factor PCs for hooking up to your TV - there's need for something a bit different here. You want an experience that's good with controllers.

For all of you, I will definitely suggest you go with Bazzite. It works very similarly to Valve's own SteamOS including booting into Steam Big Picture Mode, but comes with various tweaks and tools to make the experience great across many different devices. It's also updated a lot faster than SteamOS, so fixes and improvements for newer handhelds comes a lot sooner.

You still get a full desktop mode with KDE Plasma too for all your work, web browsing and other uses. Bazzite has been growing nicely through 2025 and I fully expect 2026 to be an even bigger year for it.

I've been using Bazzite on my Lenovo Legion Go with the Z1 Extreme processor and it has been overall really great. Bazzite is a wonderful replacement for Windows on handhelds.

If you need help and support for Linux and Steam Deck gaming, you can try asking in our Discord. Don't forget to follow me on Bluesky and Mastodon too while you're at it.

Don't agree with me? Am I so wrong that you just have to do something about it? Leave a comment below.