Linux Gaming Marketshare Regressed So Far 2016

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Linux Gaming Marketshare Regressed So Far 2016

While more Steam Linux games continue to appear, the overall market-share still hasn't been trending upwards in the Linux battle against Windows and OS X...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...16-Steam-Stats

[ElectricPrism]

ZOMG [ ✓ ] Panic Button ] [ ] Don't Panic Button ]

Everybody panic!

/Sarcasm

[vortex]

This is dumb, the survey isn't given out to all people, and not everyone who gets one bothers to send it back.
So, what is the point of this?

[Med_]

This is dumb, the survey isn't given out to all people, and not everyone who gets one bothers to send it back.
So, what is the point of this?

Well, there is a thing called statistics that allows you to get a good idea of the distribution from a fairly small sample. One can even estimate the uncertainties on the estimates from the size of the sample. The bigger the sample, the better naturally. That being said, as far as I remember one of the issues is that steambox owners do not get the survey. So there is a potential for underestimating the number of linux users. However I suspect that Valve has more accurate numbers than these ones. I would be surprised if Steam does not send the OS information at startup.

[ssokolow]

I still think that, just by virtue of it being Steam, it's introducing a hard-to-estimate bias. I can't be the only Linux user who shuns Steam in favour of sites like GOG because of the DRM and, of all the platforms, Linux would be the most appealing to people who shun DRM.

[Iksf]

I play almost entirely on Linux and only hop to Windows for the odd game I can't. Despite thousands of hours on the Linux steam and maybe a couple of hundred on the Windows one, I've had 2 survey prompts on Windows and none on Linux. Subjective and probably baseless complaining here, just fucking annoying.

[SaucyJack]

The last survey on Linux I received froze steam when I clicked submit. So, not accurate might be an understatement.

[tegs]

Is anyone surprised?

1.) Most consumers don't know about GNU/Linux
2.) If they do, they are unfamiliar and unwilling to change
3.) The installer (dual booting or not) can be intimidating even with Ubuntu for newbs
4.) They may have been told it is communistic and could ruin your system
5.) Steam and its games are non-free, thus against the true spirit of GNU/Linux
6.) Windows has all the games

[johnc]

To be honest, years ago when Steam came to Linux I didn't think it would end up being this bad.

There really is no financial justification for a developer to target Linux or even OS X.

[ruinairas]

Quality != Quantity, nor does Quantity = Quality. The overall experience has to be smooth for a gamer to be satisfied with the linux platform. The hit and miss state Linux is in when it comes to games is the reason why there isn't much of a change in marketshare. Just stating the facts, even though they do suck. We need a full library of quality games that work on Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA GPUS. The drivers need to match that of Windows, not to mention have all the features that the windows versions have (Nvidia ShadowPlay, Gamestream, ect to name a few). In a sense if Linux can become like Windows right now as a free platform, open source, and secure then it'll be a liable gaming platform. <<<Windows gaming isn't that great as of late either, there are a lot of broken games being released.