Steam's February Survey: AMD CPUs & GPUs Continue To Dominate For Linux Gamers

With Steam on Linux use for January clocking in at 1.95%, I was very eager to see if the February results would once again surpass the 2.0% threshold... Unfortunately, it moved in the opposite direction.

The February 2024 Steam Survey results show Linux sliding by 0.19% down to 1.76%... Meanwhile Apple's macOS slides further down to 1.32%. But right away some suspicious arise since the February numbers show Windows 10 increasing by 2.76% while Windows 11 use dropping by 2.28%... When that usually happens, it typically coordinates to an increase in Steam Chinese users.

Sure enough, looking at the language breakdown shows Simplified Chinese increasing by 7.6% in the Steam Survey and all other languages dropping.

So it's another month of Chinese reporting throwing off the data, just as we've seen at random times in prior months where there is a reported large increase in Chinese use, similarly a big uptick in Windows 10 use, etc. Either due to a large influx in new Chinese users or other factors.

Pulling up just the Linux numbers that tend to be more stable, SteamOS / Steam Deck use now accounts for around 43% of the Linux gamers as gauged by the Steam Survey.

Driven in part by the Steam Deck featuring an AMD SoC, the AMD CPU marketshare by Linux gamers is up to 71%. On Windows meanwhile Intel CPUs command a 68% marketshare.

AMD Radeon graphics continue to dominate the most popular Linux GPU list in the Steam Survey. The top spot of course being the Steam Deck's RDNA2-based graphics. Meanwhile under Windows the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 remains the most popular GPU. That's followed by the GTX 1650, RTX 2060, GTX 1060, and various other NVIDIA GPUs commanding the most popular GPUs for Steam Windows gaming.

So some interesting Linux insights while the overall Steam metrics are once again impacted by the sharp increase in Chinese use. All of the February 2024 Steam Survey numbers can be found on SteamPowered.com.