Linux hits exactly 2% user share on the October 2024 Steam Survey

Surprised it's not higher. I would have thought more than 2% of people on Steam were using Steam Deck.

Steam is a massive worldwide market, and the Steam Deck isn't offered everywhere. Chinese users for example have to import it, so not many are used there.
Well maybe Linux most likely to hit ~7% global OS market share and total 5%+ Steam Survey user share next 10 years (its just prediction)
- Over 15% marketshare in India
- Keep dreaming. Not that I hope Linux doesn't do well. But I can't imagine it'll continue to grow into the future.
- I hope it languishes around 3-4% at most, if it does get 7%-10% enshitification inevitably ensues and it will grow more and get worse
Deck sold well but there are billions of Steam users.
- ~35 million concurrent active users.
thought more than 2%

What confuses me is a survey earlier this year was 2.32%, so why the actual regression?

I'd have expected it to go up with more time to sell steam decks and whatnot, not regress by 15%.
- It goes up and down as people accept to fill the survey or don't
I got the hardware survey on my Windows PC, but not on my Steamdeck. So I wonder if there is only 1 survey per user, and most people don't use a steamdeck exclusively?
- I got asked about the survey on both my desktop and Steam Deck.
I could swear it was higher earlier this year/last year but looking at the survey results, Linux climbed to 2% this survey. I think maybe that half remembered headline was something like "Linux is higher than MacOS at 1.5% market share" or something like that instead?
I don't think the 2% figure includes the steam deck, but I might be wrong
- It does include it. The article list it in detail: 36.79% of the Linux users use the steam deck. And the number is falling, which means there are more users also using Linux on desktop PC (or other gaming handhelds)
  
  But that may also just be statistical noise.

Oh, that was me. I installed it on my desktop Linux computer the other day.

You're welcome.

Ty
Installed Pop!_OS from Windows 11 two weeks ago myself.
I got rid of my dual boot arch/windows, and installed single boot draugerOS this week end.

2%

Linux users: 👐 it's happening! 👐

Year 👏 of 👏 the 👏 Linux 👏 Desktop!

How do I take the survey? I never seem to get the popup.

Random users are asked each month. If you get chosen you'll get a popup in the Steam client asking if you'd like to participate.
- Weird that it'd be random when they could just ask every user. Would give a more accurate breakdown on certain categories.
- Yep! And it's per account. Both of my Linux machines are in this months data!
I think Steam automatically uploads your hardware and software spec
- (Only certain users, and only if you consent)

Year of the Linux desktop is nigh.

Well I finally move to a full time Linux desktop on my PC this year
- Ditto. Windows is now impossible to decrapify. Have dipped my toe in Linux gaming about a half dozen times starting in 2004 but it never felt ready til now. Proton, nvidia drivers and distros like Nobara making it not just possible but a better experience.
- Especially since Windows 10 starts retirement in a year, and a lot of PC's aren't compatible with Windows 11
- We did it!

And just to let people know, you are not limited to Linux games only. You can play windows games on Linux. Took me a while to figure this out.

Valve needs to enable Proton by default.
- I just installed Bazzite, it's all baked in.
- Didn't they make the change recently?
Proton for the win. (dows)
Just wanted to add to this for those who don't know, windows games work through a comparability later called Proton, it usually works great, but some games don't work well with it. (Mostly anticheat and stuff like that causing issues IIRC) I would always recommend checking ProtonDB before purchasing any game without explicit Linux support

I'd love to make the move, but there's a one-two punch of: I play Warzone with family. I think anti-cheat there is only going to get worse. Second? I already get caught with the fiddly bits of errors on Windows sometimes and spend too long searching for answers. Any time I see that on Linux it looks like I'd need years more of active learning new problem solving to reach my current level of comfort.

I'm at that "is it worth planting the apple tree now that I didn't plant 20 years ago?" thinking.

I'm not really a tech guy at all and I let these nerds talk me into trying Linux Mint, I haven't bothered with Windows 10 for several months now. There was some frustrating troubleshooting at first but once the settings are tweaked how you like them, the updates don't negate your tweaks like with Microsoft. I'm sure there's a lot of functionality I'm not maximizing but I don't feel the need to. I got my productivity stuff figured out, my game stuff figured out, the last thing I really need to get sorted is why my printer is being such a wiener but I use it so sparingly that there's not much motivation to mess with that. I did dual boot for a while so I wouldn't feel overwhelmingly stupid when it came to Linux, so I was able to familiarize myself with the new setup at my pace and that helped quite a bit I think. No harm in going that route, then you can see what happens with Warzone before fully taking the plunge
- I actually used Mint for about a year a decade ago, and really liked it then. What made me switch back was the gaming. That said, I hear gaming on Linux has just gotten better and better; just like people in this thread are saying. Whenever I get around to putting together a new PC I'll probably either dump something Linux on this one or dual boot myself. Sadly I don't expect Activision to really support it. But hey, Lord knows I've been wrong before. (And yeah, printers are often kinda universally assholes though; that we all know.)
If it’s within your budget, grab a Steam Deck and use it in docked Desktop mode. It’s a pretty great introduction into Linux IMO, especially due to the fact that Valve themselves are maintaining the OS, and since it’s running on a fixed hardware platform - most online solutions should be applicable to any problems you may encounter.

Worst case, you don’t like it you can always eBay it off to recoup most of your costs?
- That WOULD be a fraction of the cost of a new PC. But given my current one is a 2017 build with a 1080 in it, I'm really hoping to make next year the time to free up some money for it regardless. But I do appreciate the thought!
Warframe works fine on linux, just saying
- hah, respect, but I play Warzone with some cousins who are on console. (Actually I just searched, and I didn't realize Warframe had crossplay now! I might have to at least get them to give it a shot, thanks for the mention!)

I just converted my other brother the other day. atomic distros are great when you are the family tech support guy. Made an ssh only user on all the family computers so I can remotely deal with most of their problems without having to actually touch it or remember their login details.

There are dozens of us!

Converted one of my gaming PC SSDs to a Linux disk. and I'm so amazed how well it just works with proton.

When a have some time I'm going to fully convert it to Linux, with a small Windows VM for the 1-2 tools I sometimes need

and I’m so amazed how well it just works with proton.

Yeah dude!

I'm relatively new to Linux, so I don't really have any experience pre-proton. But I get the feeling that there are TONS of people who haven't tried it in years, that truly do not understand how far it has come. I'm sure they've heard that before, etc., but I can say that it's 100% true this time.

If you haven't tried gaming on Linux since before the Steam Deck came out, I implore you to give it another shot. Even better if you use a gaming-oriented distro (I'm on Bazzite now, and it has been wonderful).
- yeah, proton is amazing.
  
  I'm using linux for 17 years or so, and just kept my gaming rig as my only windows machine.
  
  Gaming on linux was super hit or miss. Sometimes wine (at its forks) worked nicely, sometime it was unusable.
  
  It got a LOT better when everyone started using unity and unreal, as they have native linux compatibility, but proton now closed the gap nicely

I gave Linux another shot this past month. It was a lot better than I remembered, but still not good enough, basically in the reliability areas. I wish the experience was “it all just works” like so many have said.

I may not mind giving it another try when Windows Recall goes live.

Sounds like you're willing to forgive a mountain of bullshit for windows but nothing for a non corporate os
- Priority one is having a working computer. Priority two is evading future spyware.
  
  Priority three is using an OS where seeking support for issues doesn’t produce the reply “Sounds like you fucked something up, idiot, because it works perfectly for me!”
- "None of my stuff works but I least I don't have to use WinBloWz$$$"
Just randomly wondering, which distro did you use on what hardware?
- I used Linux Mint 21 first, which didn't (correctly) support my ancient wi-fi card or graphics driver. I then tried 22, which was much better, but failed to run a number of games, exhibiting a variety of issues not listed on ProtonDB.
  
  I then switched to Bazzite, which ran those same games correctly, but its OS-integrated file explorer was oversimplified far past what Windows does, it failed to install several Linux-native applications, alt-tab behavior was frequently glitchy around games, and often I would come back from sleep mode with bizarre graphical glitches forcing me to restart.
  
  I'm not even highlighting the poor usability, or the stuff I might be able to reconfigure. I'm okay with taking time to tweak my OS how I want it, but not when that's just a matter of having it work correctly.

Coincidentally last month I got the survey for the first time since I switched to Linux a decade ago.

I got rid of my dual boot arch/windows, and installed single boot draugerOS this week end.

YEAR OF THE LINUX DESKTOP

Whelp, I ain't helping the cause. I might be running Fedora on both my computers, but I can't be bothered to game.

FreeDoom isn't a game, it's a lifestyle

Seriously i hope it stays like that, i don't want to bother with viruses in the future

...security by obscurity? Guess when Linux finally explodes in popularity, you'll see me over on FreeBSD instead
- In what way does "security by obscurity" apply here?

Still no anti cheat support

Linux always had software that has anti-cheat. First one I can think off that is both a native Linux application and has anti-cheat is Tibia. Aside from that are Valve games. I am sure there are plenty of others too aside from those that opened up through Proton/Wine.

What we don't have is kernel level anti-cheat and honestly I would rather stay away from games that deploy it than allow such software running in my computer.