Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time

I got asked to submit my specs 3 times this last month lmao

All different devices but all Linux

got my survey yesterday!!

Nice. Graph looks ever more like an exponential growth. At some point it should slow down, but for now it seems in accordance to such a tendency indeed.

Well. This is probably some kind of mistake, but I'll bask in it.

I remember when Linux was 1% on desktop in general, 0.01% for gaming. In those days Mac was generally described as 5%. So, we're (in theory) now at the point Mac was when it was the competitor to Windows. That should be enough for a bit of hardware support, eh?

11% for English speaking . . . that's insane. But, once again says to me that something needs to be done about China not doing Linux.

Not everything is bad in the world. There are good things.

This rise is very suspicious; it's too big to be happening over a single month. I'd wait till next month to see if the gain is sustained.

Quoting: sarmadThis rise is very suspicious; it's too big to be happening over a single month. I'd wait till next month to see if the gain is sustained.

If this data is close to be the truth it is more likely a growth of 3 months. Chinese new year begins in January and ends in February, so both months are weak for Linux. January has not such a big impact as February. Look into past, every January is a weak month for Linux followed by the even weaker February. If you look into the last year from Win10 EOL and follow the trend until December, the March numbers could be true.

However, I fully agree with "wait till next month" to verify any data.

Is it even an accurate way to measure Linux gaming? For the last two years or so, I don't even bother installing steam, I just go straight to heroic.

Quoting: PoliticsOfStarvingIs it even an accurate way to measure Linux gaming? For the last two years or so, I don't even bother installing steam, I just go straight to heroic.

I don't think that matters much. There are Linux gamers outside of Steam, but there are also Windows gamers outside of Steam (e.g. my grandkids who only play Roblox) . . . and actually a disproportionate number of Mac gamers outside of Steam, because they probably use the Mac app store. I don't think we have any evidence that would support the idea that the percentage of Linux gamers on Steam is misleading because there are disproportionate numbers of non-Steam Linux gamers.
Plus, frankly the majority of Linux gamers are on Steam. I think you're an outlier.

Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 3 Apr 2026 at 5:55 am UTC

I recall a time period where people endorsed Stadia out of necessity, and the negative implications of Google and their goals (certainly not improve Linux gaming) were sidelined, and I thought "Linux gaming is growing, Google's involvement will do more harm than good". Fast forward to now, I dont believe Stadia games, that had a somewhat functional Linux basis were released as ports. Developers who signed exclusivity did release their games on Steam though. Key point is that endorsing a gaming platform by a company who would introduce (more of) things like drm, ads and data collection is a unfortunate to put it mildly. And if you need more on why Google is untrustworthy, and their platform closing was for the better, here..
https://keepandroidopen.org/

Quoting: spacemonkeyOr could this be people joining Linus' (LTT Linus) Linux Challenge?

That was last year was it not?

Which failed IIRC.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphone

Quoting: elmapulnon gaming pcs dont matter for the gaming market.

It matters, because someone working with Linux is more likely to adopt Linux on private PC, too. And someone who already owns a Linux PC is more likely to try out games on Linux instead of dual-booting all the day along.

Absolutely agree. My experience mirrors the one you've described.

I moved to Linux (Mint's Mate Edition) on my daily driver after my hard drive failed and I couldn't reinstall Windows. At first, I used it mostly for Web surfing, Office tools and digital music file management. As I grew more comfortable, I learned about this Wine thing and started playing around with running games in Linux. Once I got a laptop with an Nvidia dGPU, it was only natural to try Linux there as well. I still maintain a dual-boot with Windows for the odd game that has issues running in Linux, but most of my games are played in Linux these days.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneIt was also the year of Win10 EOL.

Which, technically, wasn't. With the free year of extended support, Win10 EOL is really a bit of a fiction. Anybody with a Microsoft Account can easily access the program. Even a Hotmail email account counts as a Microsoft Account.

I suspect that the M$ obsession with LLM's, advertising and telemetry harvesting is having more of an impact than the Win10 EOL. Rendering thousands of perfectly good PCs obsolete with Win11's introduction probably didn't help either. Besides, from what I've heard, Win11 just plain sucks.

Last edited by Caldathras on 3 Apr 2026 at 5:59 pm UTC

Quoting: CaldathrasAnybody with a Microsoft Account can easily access the program.

AFAIK, that's EU only? Others need to jump through additional hoops?

Yes, it was just for EU.

Quoting: CaldathrasWith the free year of extended support, Win10 EOL is really a bit of a fiction.

And not having a MS account (which was one of the many reasons not to use W11) still makes W10 EOL for EU citizens, too. I know, it's a weird situation where W10 is end of life and kinda not. But this is also the reason some people delay the switch to Linux another year.

When I speak "because of W10 EOL" I include all the reasons people may don't want to switch to W11 as online account, Copilot, broken features, advertisement on desktop, bloatware, trackers, "feature" updates and so on. To me the EOL is the term that indirectly speaks about all these problems.

Past month it had an unrealistic dip which was not corrected, this peak also looks a bit unrealistic, I'd like to be true but I guess it will be corrected and we'll land into the low 4%s (4.2-4.3 maybe)

Quite happy to see that. 😊
Also this is the first time after me switching to Linux exclusively that Steam bothered to include me. So I'll proudly claim that the recent increase is partly my doing. Look Ma, I'm on TV! 😆

Quoting: pete910

Quoting: spacemonkeyOr could this be people joining Linus' (LTT Linus) Linux Challenge?

That was last year was it not?

Which failed IIRC.

They are doing another one now. As we speak.

Quoting: WORMI got asked to submit my specs 3 times this last month lmao

All different devices but all Linux

Whenever I get asked, I get asked on all the devices I have. To me it looks like they select random users, not random pcs.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy11% for English speaking . . . that's insane. But, once again says to me that something needs to be done about China not doing Linux.

I still don't understand why asian countries and china especially adopt Linux slower then the rest of the world. One would think they would be happy not relying on US closed source Software.

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: CaldathrasAnybody with a Microsoft Account can easily access the program.

AFAIK, that's EU only? Others need to jump through additional hoops?

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneYes, it was just for EU.

Quoting: CaldathrasWith the free year of extended support, Win10 EOL is really a bit of a fiction.

And not having a MS account (which was one of the many reasons not to use W11) still makes W10 EOL for EU citizens, too.

Yes, enrollment is automatic in the EU. In North America, it is essentially opt-in. You can enroll in ESU at no additional cost if you are syncing your PC Settings. These settings are enabled by default. The only hoop is that you have to register your Microsoft Account to enable the support. You can go back to an offline account for logins right after registering.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneWhen I speak "because of W10 EOL" I include all the reasons people may don't want to switch to W11 as online account, Copilot, broken features, advertisement on desktop, bloatware, trackers, "feature" updates and so on. To me the EOL is the term that indirectly speaks about all these problems.

To me, those are separate and distinct issues from EOL but all good reasons to drop Windows in favor of Linux.

Last edited by Caldathras on 4 Apr 2026 at 3:26 pm UTC