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Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

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Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#121
That linear trend line does not seem to fit very well, I say we are looking at the beginning of a hockey stick :)

Stopped dual-booting for games and formatted the partition some time after Windows 7 EOL. Thank you Wine contributors, Valve and lord Gaben.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#122

Made the switch to Mint recently. Steam says that of 750 games on my account, 748 can run on Linux, and I've had no problems with the dozen or so I've played lately.

> 748 can run on Steam Assuming you mean on Linux?

Yes, my bad. Fixed.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#123
post #26

I just made the switch. I had been developing on Windows for the last couple of years, mostly to get used to the ecosystem. I wanted to be able to write C and C++ like I do on Linux, without an IDE and with the native toolchain (i.e. no cygwin). On top of that, I play Overwatch every night. Windows just seems to have zero focus on performance though. React based start menu with visible lag, file Explorer (buggily) pa…

Out of curiosity, why are such high fps numbers desirable? Maybe I don't understand how displays work, but how does having fps > refresh rate work? Aren't many of those frames just wasted?

Tying the input and simulation rates to the screen refresh rate is an old "best practice" that is still used in some games. In fact, a long time ago it was even an actual good practice.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#125
post #80

I was really proud that my kids (8,10,12) all have used linux for gaming for the last several years. Steam runs perfectly for most games. And, they know how to to use "flatpak update" to update the sober runtime for Roblox (I know this is not steam, but it is an example of how well other things run on linux). I'm so proud (and ashamed they play Roblox, but choose your battles). But, Fortnite. I tried to run a Windows…

The problem is DRM, so there is no good answer.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#126
post #31

I didn't expect Linux to be above macOS despite Wine's awesomeness. - Windows 94.84% - Linux 3.05% - macOS 2.11%

Apple really shot themselves in the foot with their insistence on dropping OpenGL and not having an in house Vulkan implementation. Games that want to support macs need to add Metal renderers.

Seems this kind of comments will keep coming no matter what. Nevertheless, here's some points on the matter:

Apple was the company that boosted OpenGL popularity by using it as the graphics API for OS X. In Apple platforms world there's only one graphics API that is guaranteed to work across their hardware, so it was a big deal. However, they could not keep up with OpenGL updates, as they overlapped poorly with their products map, i.e. switching new OS X to newer OpenGL revision would require to drop support for older Macs.

Out of that need (and also to address multiple shortcomings of OpenGL) Metal was born. OpenGL support layer was implemented on Metal.

Metal was released before Vulkan API was finalised. There was never need for Apple to support Vulkan. Vulkan, as the OpenGL before it, has the same downsides for Apple, but bringing nothing to the table compared to Metal.

Very few games have custom written Vulkan rendering pipeline. Majority rely on game engines, and if the engine supports Vulkan rendering, it is almost certain to also supports Metal.

So, instead of relying on supporting 3rd party rendering APIs Apple spends resources on helping with porting games to Macs natively.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#129
post #91
post #26

I just made the switch. I had been developing on Windows for the last couple of years, mostly to get used to the ecosystem. I wanted to be able to write C and C++ like I do on Linux, without an IDE and with the native toolchain (i.e. no cygwin). On top of that, I play Overwatch every night. Windows just seems to have zero focus on performance though. React based start menu with visible lag, file Explorer (buggily) pa…

Does HDR work though?

If using a modern variant of Wayland and if the app supports it: yes. Both, especially the latter are pretty big buts.

Re: Linux gamers on Steam cross over the 3% mark

#130
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Alternative options: - International Data Corporation is overestimating the amount of shipped Steam Decks. - Modified Steam Decks (i.e. running Bazzite) don't report themselves to be Steam Decks - Most likely: most Steam Deck users opt out of participating in the Steam Hardware survey/analytics. Last year, I didn't participate in the Steam Hardware survey on my Deck, only on my PC. This year, I participated on my Dec…

Even more likely: A sizable portion of Steam Decks sold are not played every month.
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