Steam Linux Use Dips Back Below 0.5%

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam Linux Use Dips Back Below 0.5%

While back in May the reported Steam Linux use by Valve was at 0.57% and then dropped to 0.52% for June, over the course of July it took another step lower...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Steam-July-2018-Stats

[atmartens]

Again though, the Steam market place has grown significantly over the past few years, so interpret the numbers as you wish.

Could you calculate / estimate the total (absolute) number of Linux users over time? Some of the percentage decrease might be due to a rise in non-Linux titles (e.g. PUBG etc.) So rather than reflecting a decrease in Linux's popularity per se, it's just that people have no choice but to use another platform.

[lectrode]

...while there are over three thousand Linux games available on Steam...

If you search solely for any game that supports SteamOS+Linux, it currently totals 5,167.

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?category1=998&os=linux

(edited to be accurate)

[TemplarGR]

Obligatory "Steam Survey sucks and it has never appeared for me yet" comment.

[HenryM]

I just got the survey. it was the first time in a few months, but I got it again an hour later...

[Ronshere]

Why does Steam even need a survey? Can't they tell what operating systems are connecting to them? Their wanting to survey about the OS is odd.

[audir8]

Somebody make a free-to-play game, with 3 achievements for playing on windows, mac and linux. Maybe the Battle for Wesnoth folks can be convinced of this? That might get the high-bound, with the Steam numbers being the lower-bound for Linux gaming marketshare (copies sold, not hours played). I'm not sure if even Firaxis has any accurate numbers for how many people play Civ 5 on Linux. Collecting data if you already know a user is never anonymous, you can anonymize it later, if users will let you. Hence Steam surveys.

[geearf]

If you search solely for any game that supports SteamOS+Linux, it currently totals 11,898.

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?&os=linux

You're not searching only games there, but everything, if you filter to games only your number will drop by about half.

[lectrode]

You're not searching only games there, but everything, if you filter to games only your number will drop by about half.

Well dang, I stand corrected. Thank you sir. That's still nearly double "over 3 thousand", but i guess I can let it slide.

[Zoll]

Just be appreciative that Valve and others care to release games on Linux. These numbers won't change unless there is a Linux console or something akin to that. What helps as well is that many modern engines make it easy nowadays to release on Linux. So once these tools are maturing more, we also get the benefit.