Steam Linux Use Dips For January 2025 Amid Odd Survey Numbers

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  • phoronix
    Administrator
    • Jan 2007
    • 67370

    Steam Linux Use Dips For January 2025 Amid Odd Survey Numbers

    Phoronix: Steam Linux Use Dips For January 2025 Amid Odd Survey Numbers

    The Steam on Linux marketshare ended 2024 with a 2.29% against Windows at 96.1% and macOS at 1.61%. The Steam Survey numbers for January were posted this evening and they show a sizable dip for the Linux gaming use but there are also other odd discrepancies with the updated monthly figures...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite
  • Kjell
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2019
    • 690

    #2
    This survey is flawed

    I can count on one hand the amount of times I've gotten it despite upgrading hardware on a yearly basis

    Comment

    • Daktyl198
      Senior Member
      • Jul 2013
      • 1582

      #3
      I've only gotten the Steam Hardware Survey one time in the entire life of my 13 year old steam account. And it was on my one Windows machine lol. The survey isn't rigged against Linux users, but it does seem to be flawed overall. How few people are they surveying each month that my very active account has only been polled a single time? Beyond that, how does 8% of language use just disappear into the void? There doesn't seem to be any checks and balances on the data coming through into the survey.

      Comment

      • Qalli
        Junior Member
        • Sep 2024
        • 1

        #4
        Originally posted by Daktyl198 View Post
        I've only gotten the Steam Hardware Survey one time in the entire life of my 13 year old steam account. And it was on my one Windows machine lol. The survey isn't rigged against Linux users, but it does seem to be flawed overall. How few people are they surveying each month that my very active account has only been polled a single time? Beyond that, how does 8% of language use just disappear into the void? There doesn't seem to be any checks and balances on the data coming through into the survey.
        Originally posted by Kjell View Post
        This survey is flawed

        I can count on one hand the amount of times I've gotten it despite upgrading hardware on a yearly basis
        Ive had the survey many many times, sometimes several times a year, but almost always on my laptop.

        RE: the numbers for this survey being weird, steam had an issue recently with tracking the numbers for best sellers https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/0...-announcement/ I wonder if the issue affected other stat tracking like the steam survey.

        Comment

        • skeevy420
          Senior Member
          • May 2017
          • 8656

          #5
          And here I am normally getting a Steam Survey a few times a year. I don't think I've really used Steam a whole lot this year. I've been on an emulation kick lately.

          Comment

          • cutterjohn
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2009
            • 333

            #6
            Originally posted by skeevy420 View Post
            And here I am normally getting a Steam Survey a few times a year. I don't think I've really used Steam a whole lot this year. I've been on an emulation kick lately.
            I can count on one hand since steam started doing the surveys how many times I have been offered it under either linux or Windows.

            Although I will note that the last time that it was hidden behind my main steam client/friends list windows and overlaid with sales/whatever window, which I just click close on mostly, but still...


            The vast majority of times that I have done the survey I have manually started it, and I just started using my steam deck again a few days ago, but Ill admit to not using it for the last two days which should be mostly irrelevant to this survey and being a single data point would be anyways...

            The language thing is interesting though... I wonder if there is some change that is throwing off used language as Im not sure how often the opensuse client is updated v. other distros and windows, so maybe there is a hiccup in there somewhere... hey grasping at straws here... and here is where I will end it as EOD don't care, the browser metrics are more important and IF steam wanted real data they would have it, but I guess the relative irrelevance of non-windows it does not matter in the grand scheme.

            MacOS and linux are basically rounding errors, or a 10% error margin...

            I still think that browser metrics are better, OR IF Valve decided to REALLY SURVEY the landscape, instead of this faux opt in surveys, they have other metrics available which undoubtedly would be more accurate...

            Comment

            • HEL88
              Senior Member
              • Oct 2020
              • 412

              #7
              And how much Linux this month without the Deck handeld? Let's see.

              Linux............................................. ...................................2.06%
              AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405............................21.98%
              AMD Radeon Graphics (RADV VANGOGH)....13.07%​

              2.06% * (1 - (0.2198 + 0.1307)) = 1.34%

              Not too bad.

              //----------------------------
              It seems to have an impact:

              Japanese 2.69% +0.16%
              Korean1.95%+0.63%​

              Statcounter shares are also low respectively: 1.88% and 1.44%.


              Comment

              • HEL88
                Senior Member
                • Oct 2020
                • 412

                #8
                Originally posted by cutterjohn View Post

                MacOS and linux are basically rounding errors, or a 10% error margin...
                You can see that here are the masters of statistics. And also there are fools working at Valve . LOL

                If it was as you write, every month Linux and macOS would have huge changes, e.g. one month 1%, next month 9%.

                But it remains stable, and the changes are strongly correlated with the language that gains and loses popularity in a given month.

                Comment

                • sarmad
                  Senior Member
                  • Jul 2013
                  • 1230

                  #9
                  Originally posted by HEL88 View Post
                  And how much Linux this month without the Deck handeld? Let's see.

                  Linux............................................. ...................................2.06%
                  AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405............................21.98%
                  AMD Radeon Graphics (RADV VANGOGH)....13.07%

                  2.06% * (1 - (0.2198 + 0.1307)) = 1.34%

                  Not too bad.

                  //----------------------------
                  It seems to have an impact:

                  Japanese 2.69% +0.16%
                  Korean1.95%+0.63%​

                  Statcounter shares are also low respectively: 1.88% and 1.44%.

                  What are the 1.88% and 1.44% numbers from StatCounter?

                  Comment

                  • HEL88
                    Senior Member
                    • Oct 2020
                    • 412

                    #10
                    Originally posted by sarmad View Post

                    What are the 1.88% and 1.44% numbers from StatCounter?
                    yep

                    Comment

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