Steam Survey Results For August Show A Linux Dip After A Very Exciting July

[skeevy420]

What a funny coincidence. I play games on Steam during July and their numbers go up. I quit playing Steam games in August in favor of Super Mario 3D World on Yuzu and their numbers go down. Am I really that important to Steam's Linux player count?

Even funnier, now I can't decide between a Switch or a 5800x3D....those Switch games are fun.

PS5 was also in that list but the greedy bastards at Sony decided to bump up their premium prices to $159 a year so I'm gonna NOPE out of the PS ecosystem. I literally just saved up the money to buy one and then I woke up the next day to read their press release.

[carewolf]

Is this survey automatic, or you have to fill manually ?

You have to agree to it, but the contents are mostly automatic. I think it asks you manually if you have a microphone and a VR headset if I remember correctly

[HEL88]

"1.82%"

But linux desktop have 1.82 * (1 - 0.44) = 1.01%

Last year desktop linux had about 1.1%.

No progress, only stagnation.

[Nth_man]

We can see the upward trend (the red line): https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

[lectrode]

"1.82%"

But linux desktop have 1.82 * (1 - 0.44) = 1.01%

Last year desktop linux had about 1.1%.

No progress, only stagnation.

I assume you're excluding the 0.44 because "SteamOS Holo" has 44.18% of the Linux marketshare.

I see no reason to exclude the Steam Deck numbers from the total percentage of Linux gamers on Steam. The Steam Deck is just as much of a PC as a desktop or laptop (it's basically a laptop with a controller instead of a physical keyboard), and SteamOS is just as much of a Linux distribution as Arch, Ubuntu, or any other. It runs native Linux apps out of the box (including the KDE desktop environment), and supporting it still requires the game to be able to run on Linux, either natively or via wine/proton.

Why would you want to exclude a particular computer from the results?

[HEL88]

I see no reason to exclude the Steam Deck numbers from the total percentage of Linux gamers on Steam. The Steam Deck is just as much of a PC

I counted DESKOP linux. So I had reasons.

Why would you want to exclude a particular computer from the results?

To know what's going on with Linux desktop gamers. Is their number increasing or decreasing - what is the dynamics and trend. Simple.

The Steam Deck is just as much of a PC

On Switch, you can also install eg. Ubuntu. Divers is supplied by Nvidia, mouse, keyboard, bluetooth, wifi works. You can use the switch like a normal PC.

Then maybe we will start treating it as PC '(basically a laptop with a controller instead of a physical keyboard) '?


You guys are funny. To support your rationale you are able to refer to portable gaming consoles as laptops .

And did you know that even in AMD's official financial report, the Steam Deck APU is in a different section than the laptop APU????

AMD can make such distinctions for themselves, but on forums with a preponderance of Linux fans they are forbidden.

[HEL88]

We can see the upward trend (the red line):

There is more information on https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/

Of course, but the year-on-year change is, because Steam Deck has gained significantly in popularity, and desktop Linux has lost a little.

[Prescience500]

Linux users when Steam survey shows slight increase in Linux percentage: Great! Linux gaming is gaining momentum! Windows we are coming for you!

same Linux users when Steam survey shows drop in Linux percentage: the survey is random and therefore not reliable.

It's Schrödinger's Survey.

[Dukenukemx]

That's a smaller dip than I was expecting to see, and it's still above macOS numbers (which I wasn't expecting), so overall it seems to be a healthy upward trajectory.

Before Apple moved to ARM a Mac user had a lot of good options. More options than a Linux user at the time. Apple users had Wine and Bootcamp, but they also have Parallels. Now with ARM, you can throw Bootcamp away and Parallels doesn't do a good enough job to play a game due to all the overhead. You still have CrossOver/Wine but it doesn't work as well just yet. As a Linux user on x86 with an AMD GPU, I have much less problems getting a game working with good performance. As time goes on and as each new game is released, it becomes apparent that a ARM based Mac user will not be able to play new AAA games on their machine. Apple knows this, which is why Apple farted out their toolkit to help developers port their games to Mac. Whoopi Goldberg can complain all she wants, but nobody is playing games on a modern ARM based Mac.

[CombatEmu]

Of course, but the year-on-year change is, because Steam Deck has gained significantly in popularity, and desktop Linux has lost a little.

Lost a little in terms of marketshare, but not in terms of absolute numbers. The Summer Sale discounts and refurbished Steam Decks offered really good value. Not to mention, the Steam Deck answers what it takes to raise Linux marketshare: sell devices with a Linux OS pre-installed. The vast vast majority of Steam Deck users stick with SteamOS over going out of their way to install Windows.