It’s been a long time coming, but Linux has finally begun to climb the charts among Steam users thanks to the Steam Deck and SteamOS. Much like a saying from a book made into a movie, “Build it and they will come”, Valve has made a path for Linux to enter the mainstream. The October Steam survey shows the open-source OS passing the 3% mark just as Windows usage dropped below 95%.
While 3% may seem laughable, it still deserves recognition since, for many years, it was below 1%. Linux on Steam has been gaining traction since the introduction of the Steam Deck, as can be seen in the chart above from GamingOnLinux, with its Proton-based Steam OS, and just one year ago was at 2% on the Steam survey. It should also be noted that Steam recently hit an all-time concurrent player count of 41,666,455, and if using that number as a basis could be allowed, it could mean there are roughly 1,249,993.65 Linux users on Steam now. This is a purely hypothetical calculation since there are many other factors to consider with a total count of Steam users vs concurrent player counts, but in either case, it’s a safe assumption that, despite being a low number like 3%, that probably translates to a much larger number of users than most would expect.
Meanwhile, speaking of numbers, the survey (via Phoronix) has some other interesting data to be aware of. SteamOS takes the #1 spot for Linux users on Steam at 27%, with “other” being #2 at 18%, and then Arch Linux at 10.3%. In terms of total usage, the rest of Linux builds are still in the just over 0% range, with Arch Linux at 0.31%. Clearly, the open-source OS still has a long way to go before being considered having achieved a more definitive mainstream position but given the huge amount of Steam users, even 3% means there’s a significant amount of folks out there using it in the palm of their hands, even if they don’t know it.