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41 of Steam's most played games in 2018 are supported on Linux

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Valve released some interesting lists today which show off some top games, these lists show some interesting details about Linux games.

Here's some fun figures:

  • 35/100 of Steam's overall top sellers in 2018 support Linux.
  • 28/150 of Steam's top-selling new releases (Early Access is counted) in 2018 support Linux.
  • 3/120 of Steam's top VR titles in 2018 supported Linux.
  • 18/50 of Steams top Early Access titles that graduated into a full game supported Linux.
  • 41/114 of Steam's most played games in 2018 support Linux - Games with the highest simultaneous peak.

Obviously the sorest spot there is VR games, although VR is still relatively in its infancy overall. With the work Valve is doing through funding developers to work on various parts of the Linux graphics stack, hopefully from 2019 onward that might improve.

Apart from that, honestly I think we're doing pretty well considering we're still a very niche platform that currently accounts for only around 0.8% of the overall Steam market share. These are the only the top games as noted by Valve too, this is missing obviously hundreds of good titles that didn't figuratively fly off the digital shelves.

See more in Valve's blog post.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam
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stretch611 Dec 28, 2018
Actually, competition for Steam would alter the most played stats.

For example if people "leave" for Epic/Fortnite... As mentioned they will not leave Steam and their library that they invested in. However, there would be fewer people "playing" on Steam as they spend their time elsewhere. Assuming that it is windows people leaving for the new store (which works if the competition doesn't support linux) linux users would have a slightly greater percentage of the "playing" stats.

However, the stat I would most like to see is what percentage of sales linux makes up for games that support linux. I saw a comment the other day about a dev that saw 11% of his sales attributed to linux. I do not expect that much from everyone, but I would expect greater than the 1% of hardware share than the overall on steam. After all, fewer titles, linux users have fewer options on where to spend their money.

It would be nice if devs realize that supporting linux didn't just get them 1% of sales, but actually a little more.
14 Dec 28, 2018
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To be honest, having less games available on my PC platform helps me stay away from more games that I can't keep up with anyway. :P I think only professional game streamers have the time to play every game that they want to. And when they stream, they have to entertain. It's not the same as sitting back and jumping into the secluded world of an RPG.
jardon Dec 28, 2018
Quoting: stretch611I saw a comment the other day about a dev that saw 11% of his sales attributed to linux.... It would be nice if devs realize that supporting linux didn't just get them 1% of sales, but actually a little more.

I've been saying this for an eternity. Just because we are sub 1% total marketshare doesnt mean we have to be sub 1% sales as well. BUY! BUY! BUY! Its really not about marketshare; its more about sales. If a dev feels like they can make money off of investing in other platforms they typically will do it. Thats why I always encourage linux users to spend money (even on proton games although people hate me for that opinion). With the somewhere north of one million steam linux users out there, for many games linux users could make up a large percentage of sales.

With as much as we save with not worrying about windows licensing, we should be able to buy even more games ;)
jarhead_h Dec 28, 2018
Quoting: SpykerI'm curious to see if a significant amount of players leave Steam this month in order to play some Epic's exclusives... What will be the effect on the Steam Linux share ?

EPIC won't syphon off any players. After all, you can't take your Steam games with you. But EPIC just might peel off a few game devs because money talks and they look and see Fortnite's fanbase within a few clicks of their own game.
Purple Library Guy Dec 28, 2018
The surprise point for me is about the 3/120 top VR titles . . .
There were 120 VR titles?! Who knew?
Purple Library Guy Dec 28, 2018
Minor pet peeve . . . none of the games literally flew off the digital shelves. You're thinking of games that figuratively flew off the digital shelves. :P


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 28 December 2018 at 5:24 am UTC
Asu Dec 28, 2018
praise Lord Gaben.
kalin Dec 28, 2018
Quoting: BoypageHalf-Life 3 a Linux exclusive title. Then market share becomes exponential...
Are you mad ? Who will do that ?
Liam Dawe Dec 28, 2018
Quoting: Purple Library GuyMinor pet peeve . . . none of the games literally flew off the digital shelves. You're thinking of games that figuratively flew off the digital shelves. :P
I'm literally an idiot :P
kuhpunkt Dec 28, 2018
Quoting: HoriValve should invest in *proper* VR games

They're already are doing that.

Quoting: Horiand then release a new console focused on VR

What would be the point of that?

Quoting: HoriThey should, this way, be able to "annex" the VR gaming market while it's young and easy to do so.
Obviously that console would also be able to play regular games as well - kinda like a Steam machine but it would be focused on VR.

What would be the difference to a regular gaming PC?

Quoting: HoriAnd let me say this again: It should be made by Valve. If other manufacturers also want to make one, fine. But there should always be the option of buying an official, Valve-made unit - which should be used as a reference by the other manufacturers, by defining a standard. Kinda like how we have official Nvidia (Founder's Edition) cards, and we also have ASUS, MSI, etc cards based on it.

That's already kind of happening.


Last edited by kuhpunkt on 28 December 2018 at 12:15 pm UTC
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