Valve amended the Steam survey for December 2025 - Linux actually hit another all-time high

Quoting: mr-victoryI feel that the GabeCube *ahem* Steam Machine will be DOA due to anti cheat, I hope to be proven wrong but Windows on ARM laptops being frequently returned item on Amazon doesn't give me confidence, those laptops' game compatibility issues are not that different from ours... the advantage Deck had was being a handheld so who cares if an fps doesn't work.

If the Deck wasn't DOA because of anti-cheat, why would the cube be?

That just makes no sense. Will it be a bit limited? Sure. Will there still be tons of people who don't care about games like Battlefield? Clearly the answer is yes.

It's not expected to sell 50 million units, even 5 is a . . . huge success.

Quoting: EssojeI'd love to appreciate these small victories for Linux, but together with the RAM crisis and the news lately, all I can see here is the gruesome death of consumer PC hardware. It's like partying on top of a sinking ship.
This will likely force people who want to play games to be part of a closed garden like game consoles, or to pay for remote applications/machines. It really feels like we are going back to the remote terminal days, as ironic as that is.

I'm most likely wrong, but if I dare to speculate (and dream), maybe the RAM crisis will persuade people to stick with their current, aging PCs and what better for an aging PC than Linux?... Some people won't be able to afford a new PC to install Windows 11 so they'll try Linux.

It's a very nice trend. But there are too many variables to predict what will happen. It helps that Linux seems to be getting more positive press lately. And lot's of disenfranchised desktops/laptop should have been freed up by the TPM 2.0 debacle; so, hopefully some of that will continue to come back online with Linux. But it won't last forever.

Quoting: ertuqueque

Quoting: EssojeI'd love to appreciate these small victories for Linux, but together with the RAM crisis and the news lately, all I can see here is the gruesome death of consumer PC hardware. It's like partying on top of a sinking ship.
This will likely force people who want to play games to be part of a closed garden like game consoles, or to pay for remote applications/machines. It really feels like we are going back to the remote terminal days, as ironic as that is.

I'm most likely wrong, but if I dare to speculate (and dream), maybe the RAM crisis will persuade people to stick with their current, aging PCs and what better for an aging PC than Linux?... Some people won't be able to afford a new PC to install Windows 11 so they'll try Linux.

Especially in combination with Win10 EOL. You can't hold to on it, but you can't replace it, maybe ditch it.

Quoting: mr-victoryI feel that the GabeCube *ahem* Steam Machine will be DOA due to anti cheat, I hope to be proven wrong but Windows on ARM laptops being frequently returned item on Amazon doesn't give me confidence, those laptops' game compatibility issues are not that different from ours... the advantage Deck had was being a handheld so who cares if an fps doesn't work.

Not really. The GabeCube's target audience is mostly Steam Deck owners who want to continue their gaming session on TVs with better resolution and frame rate, and those won't bother with anti-cheat because they'll mostly be running the same games that run on the Deck. According to Valve 20% of Steam Deck owners connect their Decks to TVs despite the Deck being underpowered for TV experience, so the demand is actually there.

Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: Marlockthe percentage of linux machines with Deck-exclusive GPUs is now smaller (iirc it reached ~50% for a while) so linux growth is now driven by actual linux distros installed on PCs, laptops, etc, not a niche console that happens to have linux in it but you might never realize it, if seen as just a console

In case you'd like a graph:

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I'm going to hazard a guess that in Feb 2025, the Steam Survey showed a great big surge in Simplified Chinese. 😁

Quoting: mattaraxia

Quoting: mr-victoryI feel that the GabeCube *ahem* Steam Machine will be DOA due to anti cheat, I hope to be proven wrong but Windows on ARM laptops being frequently returned item on Amazon doesn't give me confidence, those laptops' game compatibility issues are not that different from ours... the advantage Deck had was being a handheld so who cares if an fps doesn't work.

If the Deck wasn't DOA because of anti-cheat, why would the cube be?

That just makes no sense. Will it be a bit limited? Sure. Will there still be tons of people who don't care about games like Battlefield? Clearly the answer is yes.

It's not expected to sell 50 million units, even 5 is a . . . huge success.

I'm not sure they're right, but I do see their point: People expect different things and play different games on a handheld.

When I buy a handheld, I expect the handheld games to work (like on Switch). And I wouldn't want to play FPS on it. On a box on the other hand, on a "real PC", I'd expect "every game" to work.

Last edited by Eike on 7 Jan 2026 at 8:19 am UTC

Quoting: CatKillerIn case you'd like a graph

Thanks for making that, it illustrates two perhaps surprising points:

1) Steam Deck usage has stayed relatively flat - or more accurately, has scaled at the same rate as total Steam usage.

2) macOS usage declined for years, but in recent times it has scaled at nearly the same rate as desktop Linux. I wonder what factors are involved with that; I don't think Valve has done anything major on that front, and to my knowledge Apple hasn't done anything to improve things for gaming (they are actively hostile to it in some ways).

Quoting: Phlebiac2) macOS usage declined for years, but in recent times it has scaled at nearly the same rate as desktop Linux. I wonder what factors are involved with that; I don't think Valve has done anything major on that front, and to my knowledge Apple hasn't done anything to improve things for gaming (they are actively hostile to it in some ways).

MacOS profiting from Windows 11 as well? If you're not keeping your box and install Linux on it, maybe buy a new one with a new OS?

Quoting: sarmadThe GabeCube's target audience is mostly Steam Deck owners who want to continue their gaming session on TVs with better resolution and frame rate, and those won't bother with anti-cheat because they'll mostly be running the same games that run on the Deck.

Is that the only possible audience? Such people would be satisfied no doubt however I expect buyers to play different games on the cube, F2P FPS or retail AAA games more often while on Deck the most popular game was Vampire Survivors for months with many other indies in the mix.
Perhaps DOA was a strong word, the better way to put it would be "many people would refund it". Which I believe can create a negative impression and push away potential new buyers but yeah I was pessimistic.
I'm partly this pessimistic because where I live the go-to game most people play together is EA FC (formerly FIFA), there are even "PlayStation cafes" where people meet up and play EA FC. The cafes have PS4/5 with a selection of games but typically everyone plays EA FC, which doesn't work on Linux. But the Deck is not even sold in my country sooo...

Quoting: PhlebiacmacOS usage declined for years

I wish to assume this is because macOS users use Heroic Games Launcher or Crossover to play Windows games with Windows version of Steam but too few people bother with that. macOS is a minority platform like us so I'd rather see them strong instead of cheering when Linux takes over Macs.
sent from my MacBook running Linux😁

Quoting: Phlebiac1) Steam Deck usage has stayed relatively flat - or more accurately, has scaled at the same rate as total Steam usage.

In particular, the proportion is staying flat at around the same level as total Linux was for years, but the release of that high profile Linux gaming demonstration device has changed the conversation; which has led to game devs paying much more attention to that device than they did to the rest of us before, and to the subsequent growth of desktop Linux.

Quoting: Phlebiac2) macOS usage declined for years, but in recent times it has scaled at nearly the same rate as desktop Linux. I wonder what factors are involved with that; I don't think Valve has done anything major on that front, and to my knowledge Apple hasn't done anything to improve things for gaming (they are actively hostile to it in some ways).

I expect that growth is from people leaving Windows 10. If Microsoft are going to make you buy a new machine anyway, do you really want that machine to be a Windows machine? For a chunk of people it seems that the answer is "no." Especially with how well-regarded Apple's Arm chips have been - I think the bump before the decline in Mac share was from the sentiment around the M1 chip.

I'm pleased that Mac is growing again. The bigger the non-Windows market, the more incentive there is for game devs to avoid single-platform tooling. Although it is a shame that Apple makes it hard to use one solution (like Vulkan, say) for all platforms. Apple having Vulkan on Macs and Sony having Vulkan on the PS6 would make multiplatform game dev much more straightforward.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI'm going to hazard a guess that in Feb 2025, the Steam Survey showed a great big surge in Simplified Chinese. 😁

+20.88%.

Great to see actually, and that is in spite of the fact that my newest Linux convert declined the Steam Survey on their PC.😁

Last edited by Nickname on 7 Jan 2026 at 1:41 pm UTC

Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: CatKillerIn case you'd like a graph

Thanks for making that, it illustrates two perhaps surprising points:

1) Steam Deck usage has stayed relatively flat - or more accurately, has scaled at the same rate as total Steam usage.

2) macOS usage declined for years, but in recent times it has scaled at nearly the same rate as desktop Linux. I wonder what factors are involved with that; I don't think Valve has done anything major on that front, and to my knowledge Apple hasn't done anything to improve things for gaming (they are actively hostile to it in some ways).

1) yeah, Valve went into it pretty cautiously the Steam Deck is a pretty niche product as you expressed before.
2) That's part Microsoft, part Valve and part Apple. Most consumers consider the choice Apple(expensive, but less espionage) and Windows(espionage, but cheap and capable). Microsoft has been behaving pretty shitty lately including becoming more expensive(Win10 EOL). Apple finally started nearly caring for gaming(Game porting toolkit). Also Valve has been sponsoring Apple gaming, since around the same moment they started sponsoring Linux gaming(MoltenVK), modifying open source is just easier.

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: mattaraxia

Quoting: mr-victoryI feel that the GabeCube *ahem* Steam Machine will be DOA due to anti cheat, I hope to be proven wrong but Windows on ARM laptops being frequently returned item on Amazon doesn't give me confidence, those laptops' game compatibility issues are not that different from ours... the advantage Deck had was being a handheld so who cares if an fps doesn't work.

If the Deck wasn't DOA because of anti-cheat, why would the cube be?

That just makes no sense. Will it be a bit limited? Sure. Will there still be tons of people who don't care about games like Battlefield? Clearly the answer is yes.

It's not expected to sell 50 million units, even 5 is a . . . huge success.

I'm not sure they're right, but I do see their point: People expect different things and play different games on a handheld.

When I buy a handheld, I expect the handheld games to work (like on Switch). And I wouldn't want to play FPS on it. On a box on the other hand, on a "real PC", I'd expect "every game" to work.

Yeah, and I should have been clearer, but when I said "Clearly the answer is yes" I really meant when you combine the Deck with this data in this article, the ridiculous growth of the desktop, it just doesn't make sense.

The Cube will most certainly sell pretty well, inline with the deck at least. To think it's "DOA" given all those things, just seems like a crazy stretch. No, it isn't going to outsell the PS5. Yes, it will outsell the original Steam Machines many times over.

Last edited by mattaraxia on 7 Jan 2026 at 7:47 pm UTC

Quoting: mr-victory

Quoting: sarmadThe GabeCube's target audience is mostly Steam Deck owners who want to continue their gaming session on TVs with better resolution and frame rate, and those won't bother with anti-cheat because they'll mostly be running the same games that run on the Deck.

Is that the only possible audience? Such people would be satisfied no doubt however I expect buyers to play different games on the cube, F2P FPS or retail AAA games more often while on Deck the most popular game was Vampire Survivors for months with many other indies in the mix.
Perhaps DOA was a strong word, the better way to put it would be "many people would refund it". Which I believe can create a negative impression and push away potential new buyers but yeah I was pessimistic.
I'm partly this pessimistic because where I live the go-to game most people play together is EA FC (formerly FIFA), there are even "PlayStation cafes" where people meet up and play EA FC. The cafes have PS4/5 with a selection of games but typically everyone plays EA FC, which doesn't work on Linux. But the Deck is not even sold in my country sooo...

Definitely not the only audience, but I would say that's the primary audience. And yes, many people will not be satisfied as you say, but I think Valve doesn't need to satisfy everyone for this to be a success. When the PS4 was released it only had a handful of games but people still bought it. So, it depends on how Valve markets the device. They need to make it clear to customers that not every game is available for it, but on the other hand its launch library is bigger than the PS4's lifetime library and that should be a big selling point.

Too bad that FC doesn't work, but at least we have e-Football. Let's hope UFL supports Linux when it gets released on Steam though I'm not sure how good it is.

Quoting: LoudTechieApple finally started nearly caring for gaming(Game porting toolkit). Also Valve has been sponsoring Apple gaming, since around the same moment they started sponsoring Linux gaming(MoltenVK), modifying open source is just easier.

Good points, I had forgotten about GPTK and MoltenVK. Both lackluster compared to what we get on Linux, but certainly positive steps. Seems like MoltenVK is on the way to being deprecated in favor of KosmicKrisp that is part of Mesa.

Last edited by Phlebiac on 8 Jan 2026 at 6:41 am UTC

Quoting: Phlebiac

Quoting: LoudTechieApple finally started nearly caring for gaming(Game porting toolkit). Also Valve has been sponsoring Apple gaming, since around the same moment they started sponsoring Linux gaming(MoltenVK), modifying open source is just easier.

Good points, I had forgotten about GPTK and MoltenVK. Both lackluster compared to what we get on Linux, but certainly positive steps. Seems like MoltenVK is on the way to being deprecated in favor of KosmicKrisp that is part of Mesa.

Apple isn't used to having to do an effort to achieve market share.
Their current market share was handed to them out of anti-trust concerns and thanks to their vendor lock in they can expand to whatever they like, usually.
Even their development they tend to leave to the bsd community. Valve wins by doing nothing, Apple thrives by doing nothing.

On the lacklusterness. Lets not forget that Mac is a very different platform than the Linux desktop.
It's not a path to freedom, it's a path to chains and protection.
Apple losing the EA lawsuits was also a boost for Apple gaming, since this slashed the prices.
For small companies that mostly make money through initial sales, Apple gaming is still too expensive, but AAA players now can make some pretty sweet money.
These AAA players also much more trust Mac for anti-cheat than Linux.

Last edited by LoudTechie on 8 Jan 2026 at 11:48 am UTC

Quoting: mattaraxia

Quoting: mr-victoryI feel that the GabeCube *ahem* Steam Machine will be DOA due to anti cheat, I hope to be proven wrong but Windows on ARM laptops being frequently returned item on Amazon doesn't give me confidence, those laptops' game compatibility issues are not that different from ours... the advantage Deck had was being a handheld so who cares if an fps doesn't work.

If the Deck wasn't DOA because of anti-cheat, why would the cube be?

That just makes no sense. Will it be a bit limited? Sure. Will there still be tons of people who don't care about games like Battlefield? Clearly the answer is yes.

It's not expected to sell 50 million units, even 5 is a . . . huge success.

The Gabe cube is a fully fledged pc with low RAM requirements in a RAM crisis.
I think its function will be very different from what we're expecting.

Last edited by LoudTechie on 8 Jan 2026 at 12:20 pm UTC