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PayPalAfter rubbing away the sleep from my eyes in disbelief, Valve have updated the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for March 2026 showing explosive Linux growth.
For the first time, Linux has smashed through 5% hitting yet another all-time high. Showing that all of Valve's work to improve Linux gaming thanks to Proton, SteamOS and the Steam Deck have certainly turned some heads. This is after last month saw a downwards swing due to a rise in Simplified Chinese so this may be things going back to where they would be normally.
The overall numbers for March 2026:
- Windows 92.33% -4.28%
- macOS 2.35% +1.19%
- Linux 5.33% +3.10%
And the usual snapshot from our dedicated Steam Tracker trends page:
One thing that is a bit odd though, is when you filter the survey just for Linux it shows this as the top Linux distributions for March 2026:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit 24.48% +0.65%
- 0 64 bit 17.60% +17.60%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 8.78% -0.29%
- 64 bit 8.01% +8.01%
- Linux Mint 22.3 64 bit 6.90% +0.28%
- Ubuntu Core 24 64 bit 3.58% -0.24%
- Linux Mint 22.2 64 bit 1.90% -0.69%
- Ubuntu 25.10 64 bit 1.67% +1.67%
- Manjaro Linux 64 bit 1.45% +1.45%
- Other 25.64% -5.94%
Two unnamed distributions, both with quite high percentages. So we may end up seeing some corrections this month. Hopefully just to fix the naming, but we've seen Valve correct the actual numbers before so I'll keep an eye on it.
Hopefully hardware like the upcoming Steam Machine will push Linux past 10%, then we might finally see some of those games blocked by anti-cheat start working.
Source: Valve
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Caldathras a day ago
Quoting: EikeQuoting: 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
Other considerations are memory shortage, old hardware (tpm or RX 580), and social media creators promoting Linux. We saw LTT, Jay, GamersNexus among other cover Linux.
Caldathras 2 hours ago
Quoting: LinuxwarperDevs of software like Mangohud, GoOverlay, vkVasalt, DXVK, Proton GE and the many whose dedication and work (may) have gone unnoticed. Linux simply got better one line of code at a time until it culminated in good usability.Very much so. And it's hard to find Windows equivalents of these tools that work just as well as the Linux-based ones. I'm thinking of Mangohud in particular.
Quoting: Linuxwarperpeople would still be using Windows, EOL or not.I manage the tech for the small business where I work. My employer has no intention of tossing out perfectly good hardware just to meet the requirements for Win11. I did the research and offered the option of transitioning to Linux. My employer was quite prepared to remain on Win10, EOL or not. When I discovered that the extended support program existed, and could be had for free simply by registering a Microsoft Account, my employer jumped on that rather than switching to Linux. The $30 USD a year option to extend that support to 3 years will likely be embraced if there is no free option to continue. I still hold out hopes of convincing my employer to eventually move to Linux. We'll see.
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