I honestly can’t believe it’s not much higher. It’s so easy these days with SteamOS and Bazzite.
Because people use their PCs as general computing devices. Immutable distros are irritating for people that are used to Windows or macOS.
Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
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Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#1227% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck.
> 27% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck.
If that is true then one of those other two claims has to be false:
1. Using the latest months recorded share (Oct-2025 - 3.05%): 4,026,000 estimated "monthly active users" for Linux+Steam.
2. Market research firm International Data Corporation estimated that between 3.7 and 4 million Steam Decks had been sold by the third anniversary of the device in February 2025.
27% of 4M gives us 1M Steam Deck + Legion users. Yet 4M were sold. That begs the question: How could it be? Do 75% of Steam Deck users run Windows? Have 75% of Steam Decks ended up in the landfill? Are the sale figures estimates wildly off-base?
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#13I honestly can’t believe it’s not much higher. It’s so easy these days with SteamOS and Bazzite.
Because people use their PCs as general computing devices. Immutable distros are irritating for people that are used to Windows or macOS.
Linux is miles better than Windows as a general computing device, it's not even close.
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#1427% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck.
> 27% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck. If that is true then one of those other two claims has to be false: 1. Using the latest months recorded share (Oct-2025 - 3.05%): 4,026,000 estimated "monthly active users" for Linux+Steam. 2. Market research firm International Data Corporation estimated that between 3.7 and 4 million Steam Decks had been…
Isn't the more obvious answer that the market research firm got their number wrong?
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#1527% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck.
> 27% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck. If that is true then one of those other two claims has to be false: 1. Using the latest months recorded share (Oct-2025 - 3.05%): 4,026,000 estimated "monthly active users" for Linux+Steam. 2. Market research firm International Data Corporation estimated that between 3.7 and 4 million Steam Decks had been…
#1 Is MAU. I wouldn't find it out of the realm of possibility that only 25% of owners played in the prior month. I wonder what this is for other consoles. I personally contribute to bursts of playing then months of not even touching some of my consoles.
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#16I honestly can’t believe it’s not much higher. It’s so easy these days with SteamOS and Bazzite.
You over estimate the will/knowledge of everyday people to do anything else than buy a branded PC, install Steam and be done with it.
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look at the most played games, half of them won't work under Linux because of the online components / anti cheat system. BF6, PUBG, Rust, GTAV Online etc.
https://www.protondb.com/explore?sort=playerCount only 6 out of the 50 most played right now aren't working 10 millions players ingame, 90% of players are not playing these titles
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Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#1827% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck.
> 27% of that 3% is the Steam Deck / Lenovo Legion Go S. So most Linux players are in fact not on the Steam Deck. If that is true then one of those other two claims has to be false: 1. Using the latest months recorded share (Oct-2025 - 3.05%): 4,026,000 estimated "monthly active users" for Linux+Steam. 2. Market research firm International Data Corporation estimated that between 3.7 and 4 million Steam Decks had been…
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Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#19Another Linux W, I love to see it. Thats 4 million gamer which is a sizable chunk of people to target
It's one of those scenarios where I've felt for years that the steam survey doesn't break things down enough to be useful for anything besides the broadest generalizations. The PC gaming market is huge, but there's going to be a lot of variety and sub-groups within it and I expect few developers are trying to target 'everyone' (the opposite of targeting).
Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark
#20Again, I should mention that Linux users usually only see the survey once a year, if you want to get the survey once a month (like it does on windows), you have to close steam monthly and edit your config.vdf file to set the survey date to last year.
Are you saying that windows users are supposed get the steam hardware once a month? I’ve had steam installed on (and more/less used daily on) probably 4-5 different windows installs since roughly 2016, and I’ve never seen it more than once a year.
Yeah it's definitely not monthly.