Steam On Linux Marketshare Edges Tiny Bit Higher In November

[MamiyaOtaru]

Otherwise, I have my doubts about this percentage, since Linux users are totally averse to telemetry

I'd expect it to be opposite. The stats aren't gathered by telemetry, but by optional surveys. Linux users tend to evangelize their OS, and given a chance to increase it's apparent usage percentage, they'd be more likely to take the survey to proudly show their OS does get used. I'd say it's almost expected in a survey that a minority option with passionate adherents overperforms. Like take a survey of Win11 users how many of them want "do not combine" in the taskbar to come back, and the people grumpy that it is gone are going to be more likely to vote. Give a Linux user a chance to show their OS gets used they're more than likely going to take it. I'd bet it is overrepresented in the stats

[Teggs]

Can't wait till Manjaro shares become higher than ubuntu

Watching the trends over at GamingOnLinux has been amusing.

[shopt]

I'm surprised mac numbers are even that high. At least linux has proton now, macs just have seemingly useless mac os for gaming. Maybe they just get all the 2D hentai games...

Don't know serious you are, but gaming on mac was quite viable if you aren't into twitch games. On a long flight with my work mac, I got by with Civ6 and slay the spire. I know other mac users who play xcom and factorio.

[F.Ultra]

steam has 120million users
1% of that is 1.2million users.
Thats a pretty decent amount - and more than windows 11, at least for now, maybe for always once the deck starts shipping in decent numbers.

The survey was not answered by 120M users though. There seems to be a lot of throw away accounts at steam since the highest number of online accounts at one time is 29M

[mSparks]

The survey was not answered by 120M users though. There seems to be a lot of throw away accounts at steam since the highest number of online accounts at one time is 29M

Number online at once is only a fraction of active users, due to (normal) people actually sleeping.
Steam has over 120 million monthly active users.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-01-14-steam-has-over-120m-monthly-active-users

Which at this point is pretty much everyone who plays games on PC.

[F.Ultra]

Number online at once is only a fraction of active users, due to (normal) people actually sleeping.
Steam has over 120 million monthly active users.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-01-14-steam-has-over-120m-monthly-active-users

Which at this point is pretty much everyone who plays games on PC.

Yes but I think that you are missing the point, 120M users didn't get the survey so Linux is not 1.13% of 120M. Truth is that we have zero knowledge of how many people that got the survey and how it's determined who gets it. That no all gets it and not all replies is also the reason why the Linux number fluctuates so much month to month since our numbers are below the error bars for data like this.

[mSparks]

Yes but I think that you are missing the point, 120M users didn't get the survey so Linux is not 1.13% of 120M. Truth is that we have zero knowledge of how many people that got the survey and how it's determined who gets it. That no all gets it and not all replies is also the reason why the Linux number fluctuates so much month to month since our numbers are below the error bars for data like this.

What OS people are using and if they are playing a game right now comes from logging into the steam client not the hardware survey on things like what gpu or how much ram do they have. afaik the only way to opt out of that is not log in, in which case they wouldnt be part of the 120million active users either.

[humbug]

It's interesting that so many people choose Ubuntu LTS over the latest version despite 21.10 should be better for gaming in general. Or, maybe they mostly use Nvidia and then it might not matter.

In my case I prefer a clean install over an upgrade. And since i use my computer most of the time for non-gaming tasks I just haven't got around to making the shift. The intention is there in the back of my mind to upgrade but since everything is working well it gets de-prioritized.

I suspect there are many people in my category. Ubuntu 21.10 has been out for less than two months.

[F.Ultra]

What OS people are using and if they are playing a game right now comes from logging into the steam client not the hardware survey on things like what gpu or how much ram do they have. afaik the only way to opt out of that is not log in, in which case they wouldnt be part of the 120million active users either.

No, all of the data showed here comes from a survey that opens at random Steam users desktop and you have to press accept/decline if you want to be part of the survey this time or not, I have once seen that myself. The data that you are talking about is not made public by Valve, that is only made available to each publisher and for only their games.

[mSparks]

No, all of the data showed here comes from a survey that opens at random Steam users desktop and you have to press accept/decline if you want to be part of the survey this time or not, I have once seen that myself. The data that you are talking about is not made public by Valve, that is only made available to each publisher and for only their games.

They have OS usage (its included in every userAgent request),
Number of people playing each game

https://steamcharts.com/

and loads more "interacting with their servers" data in real time.

https://steamstat.us/

Whats presented in the monthly hardware survey:

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam

Really is 1.2million+ Linux users

"LA LA LA LA put your fingers in your ears it can't be right" isn't really productive or honest.