The most popular argument against using Linux for gaming is there are few games to play on Linux. Go to online forums or social media and you would usually see the “only about 20% of the Steam game library has Linux support” argument. As of January 9, 2018, only 4,060 out of 18,945 (21.4%) games at Steam have Linux support. That is relatively small but people forget to consider that Steam was released in 2003 and only started supporting Linux in 2013. It means 10 years passed wherein all games being released on Steam are games that only support Windows. From a businessman’s point of view, making Linux ports of very old games does not make sense.
Related Readings:
Newbie Friendly Guide to Using Linux for Gaming
Game Developers That Support Cross-Platform PC Gaming
The Linux Games of 2017
Based from data of SteamDB, we already showed before that some of the games being played in 2017 have Linux support. Now, it’s official. Valve has released their data on Most Played games and Top Sellers of 2017. Linux gaming is alive and kicking.
Games highlighted in blue are available on Linux.
Most Played of 2017
100,000+ Simultaneous Players
4 out of 9 supports Linux – 44%
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Rainbow Six Siege
ARK: Survival Evolved
Grand Theft Auto V
Warframe
PUBG
PAYDAY 2
DOTA 2
H1Z1
50,000+ Simultaneous Players
7 out of 14 supports Linux – 50%
Paladins
Rocket League
Divinity: Original Sin II
Football Manager 2018
Civilization V
Rust
Football Manager 2017
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Garry’s Mod
Killing Floor 2
25,000+ Simultaneous Players
16 out of 28 supports Linux – 57%
Europa Universalis IV
Battlerite
Unturned
Euro Truck Simulator 2
7 Days to Die
The Elder Scrolls V
For Honor
Dead by Daylight
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Don’t Starve Together
Left 4 Dead 2
Fallout Shelter
XCOM 2
The Elder Scrolls Online
Counter-Strike
Stardew Valley
Total War: WARHAMMER
The Division
Dark Souls III
Fallout 4
Assasin’s Creed: Origins
The Witcher 3
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Stellaris
The Binding of Isaac – Rebirth
Terraria
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III
Civilization VI
Top Sellers of 2017
Platinum
4 out of 12 supports Linux – 33%
Divinity: Original Sin II
ARK: Survival Evolved
Rocket League
PUBG
Ghost Recon Wildlands
Warframe
The Witcher 3
Rainbow Six Siege
DOTA 2
Grand Theft Auto V
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
H1Z1
Gold
4 out of 12 supports Linux – 33%
Stellaris
Call of Duty: WW II
Total War: WARHAMMER
Assasin’s Creed: Origins
NieR Automata
Fallout 4
Dark Souls III
For Honor
The Elder Scrolls Online
Silver
6 out of 13 supports Linux – 46%
Cities: Skylines
Team Fortress II
Sniper Elite 4
Resident Evil 7
XCOM 2
Total War: WARHAMMER II
Planet Coaster
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Conan Exiles
Dead by Daylight
Cuphead
Rust
War Thunder
To prove that Linux really works for gaming and that we just don’t write articles about playing games on Linux, shown below are some of the Linux game play videos that you can watch on our YouTube channel.
3 Comments
Those percentages of popular and frequently played games goes up higher when one considers some of those games can be played on Wine on Linux (Like Witcher 3) and much of the older cannon never ported can also be run on Linux.
I’m a fan of Linux. But, I just can’t accept that it’s suitable for gaming yet. Performance is unacceptable and missing even one game for your library can be a dealbreaker. For example, I’ve put well over 100 hours on Skyrim which is not available. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that Linux is completely and utterly useless for gaming. I’m saying that it still needs a lot of work on that subject before being considered complete.
Break the cycle of being tied to Windows by starting to only buy games that are available on Linux. Finish your remaining Windows-only games, then start playing exclusively on Linux. That is what I did when I initially started playing on Linux and now I don’t have to deal anymore with the forced system updates of Windows 10 because I already deleted my Windows partition.
The success of switching to Linux for gaming will highly depend on the game genres you like.