Steam On Linux Gaming Usage Grew In April

[skeevy420]

You're comparing apples to oranges. A Hardware and Software survey is just that, not telemetry. Do you also think Microsoft collects what kind of CPU their customers have in their Xbox? What are you gonna change in the Steam Deck, CPU instructions? Core count? Display resolution? Amount of RAM? The most a user would do in Steam OS is probably change the Kernel or upgrade Mesa, until they change the whole OS (which would trigger the survey normally because the normal Steam client would be used.)

Not really. They're both fixed pieces of hardware with incalculable software combinations.

What would a user change in a Surface? Software -- same as they'd change in the Deck. They might not change the native display resolution, but the user might change how they scale games. The core count may not increase, but some users may intentionally cut the available amounts of cores to save power because they're not playing multicore games. They might not increase the amount of ram, but the may change swap and ram caching strategies. The CPU instructions might not change, but the user might install software with znver2 optimizations that provide performance gains.

All the seemingly static things you listed have a bit of fluidity thanks to all the numerous ways to configure a Linux system.

Any Phoronix user should understand why Valve or Microsoft or any tech company would be interested in metrics from the same hardware with different software combinations. That's Benchmarking 101.

[Vermilion]

What would a user change in a Surface? Software -- same as they'd change in the Deck. They might not change the native display resolution, but the user might change how they scale games. The core count may not increase, but some users may intentionally cut the available amounts of cores to save power because they're not playing multicore games. They might not increase the amount of ram, but the may change swap and ram caching strategies. The CPU instructions might not change, but the user might install software with znver2 optimizations that provide performance gains.

All the seemingly static things you listed have a bit of fluidity thanks to all the numerous ways to configure a Linux system.

You never checked what kind of data gets reported in the Steam survey did you? What you're describing is classic telemetry, not the Steam Hardware and Software survey.

Any Steam user would know the only user configurable setting reported by the survey (besides driver versions, which should be fixed in Deck), is the locale.

[sarmad]

The numbers don't show noticeable increase in SteamOS or in Arch, so I assume they are still not counting Steam Deck, or that the increase isn't directly attributed to Steam Deck.

[hikingpete]

It would have been some time ago, but I recall seeing the survey prompt while I was in desktop mode on the Deck.

[blackiwid]

The numbers don't show noticeable increase in SteamOS or in Arch, so I assume they are still not counting Steam Deck, or that the increase isn't directly attributed to Steam Deck.

I don't think that's how this steam survey works, it's not like that every person that uses steam the first time get's at it's first usage such a survey, also it seems not a fixed timing like everybody get's it after 1 month, what exactly it triggers or how steam server decides who get's it seems pretty undiscovered?

So let's assume that on average everybody get's 6 months a survey and it's spread over 12 months, how does this numbers get count, only the people that reported in this 1 month? Or the last year together?

So without knowing more details it could be that the numbers go up slightly month after month for a year or so.
Maybe only the one that installed the new steam version got the survey?

[preflex]

I got the survey four times on April 30 alone, so the bump is probably all me. ;-)

[AmericanLocomotive]

Valve is certainly documenting Steam Deck users - as mentioned the AMD 0405 is the Steam Deck SOC. The Steam Hardware survey is primarily used for Valve and other game devs to get an idea of PC hardware, and what they should target their games to. There are 120 million steam users - it's going to take a A LONG time before the Steam Deck makes a noticeable presence on the hardware survey.

[sarmad]

I don't think that's how this steam survey works, it's not like that every person that uses steam the first time get's at it's first usage such a survey, also it seems not a fixed timing like everybody get's it after 1 month, what exactly it triggers or how steam server decides who get's it seems pretty undiscovered?

So let's assume that on average everybody get's 6 months a survey and it's spread over 12 months, how does this numbers get count, only the people that reported in this 1 month? Or the last year together?

So without knowing more details it could be that the numbers go up slightly month after month for a year or so.
Maybe only the one that installed the new steam version got the survey?

I don't think you understand my comment, so go read it again carefully, because it doesn't matter whether everyone gets the survey or only some people and it also doesn't matter if you get the survey regularly or randomly. It's basic math: If an increase of a certain population is caused by an increase in a subset of that population, then that subset should also show an increase.

[blackiwid]

I don't think you understand my comment, so go read it again carefully, because it doesn't matter whether everyone gets the survey or only some people and it also doesn't matter if you get the survey regularly or randomly. It's basic math: If an increase of a certain population is caused by an increase in a subset of that population, then that subset should also show an increase.

But it shows a increase just not as you did put it a "noticeable" increase, as far as I understand the numbers in the news arch gone from 0.12 to 0.14% that is a 16-17%. for just 1 month I would argue that this is a lot, I assume the numbers should be more "noticable" if all steamdevices are counted but I only find the "active users" with 120mio all registered accounts are probably much higher but even with the 120mio 0.02% is still 2.4mio new users.

Does anybody have the sales numbers of the steam machine? the highest number (speculations) I see is 3 months old and 1.5mio and they say something about building 100k each month, so that numbers would be not that far off it seems.

[mdedetrich]

But it shows a increase just not as you did put it a "noticeable" increase, as far as I understand the numbers in the news arch gone from 0.12 to 0.14% that is a 16-17%. for just 1 month I would argue that this is a lot, I assume the numbers should be more "noticable" if all steamdevices are counted but I only find the "active users" with 120mio all registered accounts are probably much higher but even with the 120mio 0.02% is still 2.4mio new users.

Does anybody have the sales numbers of the steam machine? the highest number (speculations) I see is 3 months old and 1.5mio and they say something about building 100k each month, so that numbers would be not that far off it seems.

I am not sure how accurate the "Arch" identifier is. I own a steam deck and even though the the distro is arch based, it actually reports itself as Steam OS 3 and not Arch Linux