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A quick run over some details from the recent ProtonDB data

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Every now and then, the people behind ProtonDB release data dumps from user generated reports of games tested in Steam Play.

What is ProtonDB? It's an unofficial statistics website, where you can note how good or bad various games run on Steam when played with Steam Play. It's a fun one to track, so with a new data dump I thought it might be interesting to try my hand at getting something out of the data for anyone curious.

The latest data dump is available here, which shows a total of 29,823 reports so it's getting rather massive. It goes to show just how many people are testing a wide variety of games!

First up, here's a look at how many reports are going in monthly:

Clearly less reports going into it as time goes on, which is quite interesting. Now, it doesn't mean Steam Play is suddenly any less popular of course, we do have to remember this is an unofficial website and given how many games have a lot of reports already, some may now just look to see existing reports.

Specific to this month, there were 3,119 reports. Here's a breakdown of those reports (one didn't seem to have a status set correctly):

As for the actual games being reported, here's the top 15 most reported games on ProtonDB through January:

Quite an interesting and varied selection there, with Yakuza 0 being no surprise since it was part of last month's Humble Monthly.

It's also nice to see so many people trying out (and enjoying) The Witcher 3, with it being the second most popular game. I'm not entirely surprised here, as I imagine a number of people purchased it originally when a big announcement was made about it coming to SteamOS/Linux which never actually happened in the end. It's another reason why Steam Play is such a great idea, for the times we are sadly let down and for those who don't care about port arguments who just want to play great games.

Here's a look at some more details like Linux Distributions. This one is a close-enough approximation, as the list of distributions is quite varied and messy on the naming, as it's gathered from Steam's system information output:

Note: Some distributions only come up as "Linux 4.x". For those, we're verifying using the Kernel string for both Arch, Fedora and Gentoo. Still looking over ways to do the same for others. All other distributions are bundled into "Other".

Next, here's a look at what types of GPU people are using when attempting to play games with Steam Play:

And again here with what CPU people are using:

Additionally, most reports (1,757 of them) were made using the latest available Proton Beta 3.16-6.

Hopefully I will take another look when they do their next database dump, if people find it interesting enough of course.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Steam Play, Misc
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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67 comments
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mylka Feb 3, 2019
since witcher 3 is such popular on linux and CDPR sees how many proton gamers there are, i wonder if they make cyberpunk for linux like witcher 2... or at least support proton with vulkan
Nevertheless Feb 3, 2019
Flatpak Steam on any distribution also turns up as "Linux 4.x".
Elvanex Feb 3, 2019
Slightly off topic, but I'm a bit surprised/happy to see Solus so high up there in distro usage. :)
Philadelphus Feb 3, 2019
Hey, I contributed one of those AoE II reports just a few days ago! :D

Though I don't know if it's included in there; Debian stable is still on Nvidia driver version 390.87, below the minimum recommended value for Proton, so while it accepts my contributions it warns that they won't be shown by default. (I do enjoy the stability of Debian stable, but ugh, graphics driver updates take FOREVER. :()

I don't know if this is included in the data, but it would be interesting to see if there's any difference in the playability of games based on the OS. Like, does the same game run at 'platinum' level more often on Arch-based systems than Debian-based, or vice-versa, or no difference overall? Checked over many different games, of course.
Shmerl Feb 3, 2019
Interesting that AMD GPUs usage is ~35%. Slightly higher than GOL stats, but within the margin of error.


Last edited by Shmerl on 3 February 2019 at 5:37 am UTC
Shmerl Feb 3, 2019
Also good to see many reports for TW3. Actual popularity is probably higher, due to those who use GOG version and regular Wine+dxvk.

Quoting: GuestWell, I heard a rumor about a year ago that they were using Vulkan for Cyberpunk, but I couldn't find any evidence that it was true. So, I don't believe it.

I don't think there is any evidence of that. CDPR are in general very reluctant to discuss any technical details about their work in progress. So it's possible we won't know what they are using until the very release.


Last edited by Shmerl on 3 February 2019 at 5:49 am UTC
Creak Feb 3, 2019
Quoting: NeverthelessFlatpak Steam on any distribution also turns up as "Linux 4.x".
I can validate, just had the Steam survey today and saw "Linux 4.x", although I'm on Fedora.
Maybe listing all these as Arch skews up the numbers a little, especially since how much Fedora devs are the ones pushing for Flatpak.


Last edited by Creak on 3 February 2019 at 5:59 am UTC
These are my platinum reports:


I have more reports to do..


Last edited by Comandante Ñoñardo on 3 February 2019 at 6:18 am UTC
Segata Sanshiro Feb 3, 2019
Quoting: Comandante ÑoñardoThese are my platinum reports:

I have more reports to do..

What's the deal with the Metro games? Do they run better with proton or something?
TheSHEEEP Feb 3, 2019
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So many people using Arch?
I would've expected Mint second.

Of course, these stats say nothing about the people that made the report, right?
It would, in theory, be possible that each report is by another person, or that one person is responsible for half the Ubuntu reports.
I wonder how what such a "cleaned up" stat (as in, only one report counts per person) would look like.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 3 February 2019 at 7:31 am UTC
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