Windows is easily the most dominant OS in the world and Steam users are primarily all on Windows although the platform is available on MacOS and Linux. TechPowerUp recently wrote that Linux gamers has passed 1% market share of Steam users.
While this is a very small number, one has to understand that gaming on Linux is not a 1-2-3 process. The biggest challenge is not Linux’s availability itself but the games not being playable on Linux. Proton for Steam changed this and has allowed a very big chunk of games to be played on Linux.
The number of Linux gamers are not steadily growing though as it has been an unstable number but has never seen past 2% in Steam’s Hardware Survey.
The take here is that there is a cause for this recent uptick in people adopting Linux perhaps some preinstalled laptops or PCs thanks to the surge in PC sales since last year. This will obviously increase once Steam Deck hits the market as it uses SteamOS, a Valve gaming-optimized Linux distribution.
We have a couple of Linux gaming resources here in Back2Gaming for those that want to get started.
