Steam Linux Use Dips Back Below 0.5%

Written by Michael Larabel in Valve on 1 August 2018 at 08:24 PM EDT. 71 Comments
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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.

Valve just published their latest monthly figures for the Steam Hardware/Software Survey and for July 2018 they put the overall Steam Linux market-share at just 0.49%. Granted, the overall Steam user-base continues to grow, so on a total number of Linux gamers may be around the same or perhaps larger than prior months, but Valve doesn't often provide detailed updates on their total customer base.

While for the prior three months the Steam Linux market-share was above 0.5%, it was just earlier this year when it was reported to be around 0.3% -- granted, Valve later admitted to over-counting gaming cafes that tend to be Windows-based, etc.

Back in July 2017, the Steam Linux gaming market-share was about 0.74% or back in July 2016 it was at 0.82% and 0.89% for July 2015. Again though, the Steam market place has grown significantly over the past few years, so interpret the numbers as you wish.

Overall it's not too surprising as while there are over three thousand Linux games available on Steam, many of them are indie titles with not too many recent AAA titles in a same-day or timely manner outside of Feral's few Linux game ports per year with hits like Tomb Raider, A Total War Saga, F1, etc. Valve at least continues delivering good Linux support for their software and we should see same-day Artifact support on Linux come the game's release in November. But aside from that, with SteamOS still dragging along -- though we're looking forward to SteamOS 3.0 in beta as based on Debian Stretch and some much needed package updates -- and nothing on the Steam Machines front, there isn't too much to get excited about for gamers thinking about switching to Linux from Windows or even macOS. At least the SteamVR Linux support is getting into shape and should be there for Fedora 29, Ubuntu 18.10, and other Linux distribution updates shipping soon with the newest kernel/Mesa/X.Org components.

Those wanting to dig through the July 2018 Steam Survey numbers can find them as always at SteamPowered.com. When it comes to Linux-only hardware statistics, Intel CPUs remain the most common in about 80% of Linux gaming systems, the GeForce GTX 1060 remains the most popular graphics card, the Radeon RX 480 comes in as the most popular AMD discrete GPU, and about half of the Linux gamers are running at a 1080p resolution.
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Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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