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When it comes to PC gaming in general, Windows has always been the main OS for users, for its focused development on said OS, and for its compatibility with the vast majority of gaming software available.

While Windows has historically maintained most of the gaming market for PC, other operating systems have also hold a share in it, even if low, like Linux and macOS, which next to Windows, have also their own gaming market. For decades, Windows held the first place, with a percentage of around 95+%, followed closely by macOS and then Linux following with percentages barely breaking above the 1%.

However, due to the popularity of the recently released Steam Deck just a year ago, alongside Valve's own SteamOS, the percentage share for Linux gamers has seen a historical rise in usage, taking the 2nd place with 1.96%, which was held previously by macOS with 1.84%. That 1.96% isn't specific to a particular distribution of Linux, since Linux also ranges from a wide variety of them, with the following braekdown based on Linux distributions for gaming:

SteamOS: 42.07% Arch Linux: 7.94% Ubuntu 22.04.2: 7.38% Freedesktop.org SDK 22.08: 5.99% “Manjaro Linux”: 4.29% Linux Mint 21.1: 3.84% Pop!_OS 22.04: 2.97% Other Linux operating systems: 25.52%

Without a doubt, a huge number of the chart is taken up by SteamOS users, and while SteamOS is the operating system that comes bundled with the Steam Deck, it can also be installed in PCs, though it's unknown just how much of that 42% is taken up by actual Deck users, and how many by PCs with SteamOS users, but it might be safe to say that the majority of that portion from the chart could very well be Steam Deck players.

Source #1
Source #2

 

[Xzi]

There are methodological problems in the research as well, is it is not counting the Chinese emulation station based handhelds that are selling astronomical numbers, specially outside the fat land and the white land. Those devices are almost always offline and there is no way on earth to know how many are out there with precision.

*Emulation stations and its forks are Linux OSs

If they run on ARM, they're counted as Android devices. And most of those aren't running Steam.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

If they run on ARM, they're counted as Android devices. And most of those aren't running Steam.

only steam users are considere PC gamers? WTF?

edit: also, ARM is not equal to android, the vast majority of handhelds are not touching android, they're straight up linux machines

 

[Xzi]

only steam users are considere PC gamers? WTF?

These results are from the Steam hardware survey, so only Steam users are included in the data set.

 

[tech3475]

Seconded, Valve is probably the strongest force in making Linux a viable platform. It's not my daily driver... yet. I'd rather fall back on Linux Mint than upgrade to Win11.

Mint's my favorite distro, if anyone wants recommendations.

I ended up ditching Mint as my go to distro because it’s given me issues over the years, including drivers, software and compiling.

I tried Manjaro but then some software I wanted to use didn't work, so I ended up just using Ubuntu with Cinnamon.

Mint still has my favourite OOBE, but I simply can’t rely on it.

come on!!!

• Windows users take up 96.21%
• Linux now takes up 1.96%
• macOS is third with 1.84%

This info is on the source. The Linux 1% is bigger than the macOS 1%, how this is newsworthy?

Considering that in the past I’ve seen software natively support mac but not Linux, the larger reported market share could potentially make Linux a more viable platform with increased support from devs/publishers.

 

[Marc_LFD]

The point is that there's always a huge workload of fixes for devs for a niche os nobody uses.

Just use Windows, nerds.

Yeah, Windows 10. Not 11, though.

 

[Bladexdsl]

anything is better than that SheepOs

 

[Deleted member 194275]

These results are from the Steam hardware survey, so only Steam users are included in the data set.

wow!!! how impressive then, steam OS has 1% of steam users, what an amazing feat!!!

 

[codezer0]

I've yet to see, much less use, a steam deck. Though from all the years and time dealing with various flavors of Linux over the decades, I can say rather plainly... It needs help. A lot.

The only *nix based anything that hasn't had me pounding my fists into the desk in refined frustration has been Mac OS 10; period, end of. Any failing of MacOS being a viable gaming platform falls entirely on Apple at this point, because Valve has done more for Macintosh gaming than Steve Jobs or Tim Cook ever did, or will.

 

[Kioku]

How is this an accomplishment? Of course a device that is $500+ less than cheapest Mac is going to cost you, is going to inflate numbers eventually lmao

Linux.. that’s it… If they released a Windows based mobile gaming handheld, none of this would matter. There’s a stigma with Linux that it’s not for gamers. Breaking the 2% barrier is impressive as it’s not just the Deck as even other distros are on the rise.

 

[duwen]

The only thing I find surprising about this is that MacOS was ever ahead of Linux in popularity for gaming.

 

[Thulinma]

So... we're not counting Android as Linux, then? 'cause last I checked, Android phones were more or less the most popular consumer gaming platform on the planet. And Android is Linux-based.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I'm positive there were more Linux gamers than Mac gamers for a long time. The difference is, in the past, they used to be detected as Windows (because people had to use Wine), and now, thanks to Proton, you can use the native Linux client and still run Windows games.
Mac, on the other hand, had no equivalent to Wine (Crossover is not free) and a smaller percentage of nerds actually willing to figure out such a thing. And they always had more commercial game ports than Linux.

Anyways, well deserved. Apple has never cared about gaming anyways and Apple can suck my dick in general.

 

[The Catboy]

Victory screech!!!!

 

[Xzi]

wow!!! how impressive then, steam OS has 1% of steam users, what an amazing feat!!!

2% actually, which is not insignificant with 120 million monthly active users. Steam is not only the biggest PC gaming platform, it's the biggest gaming platform period.

I've yet to see, much less use, a steam deck. Though from all the years and time dealing with various flavors of Linux over the decades, I can say rather plainly... It needs help. A lot.

SteamOS itself feels just as slick and user-friendly as any of Sony's systems, and it gives you a lot more freedom to boot. If you're only buying Deck for modern gaming purposes, switching to the desktop mode is entirely unnecessary.

 

[Kioku]

2% actually, which is not insignificant with 120 million monthly active users. Steam is not only the biggest PC gaming platform, it's the biggest gaming platform period.


SteamOS itself feels just as slick and user-friendly as any of Sony's systems, and it gives you a lot more freedom to boot. If you're only buying Deck for modern gaming purposes, switching to the desktop mode is entirely unnecessary.

Steam OS has roughly 42% of the 1.94% of Linux users. Less than 1, but it's still nothing to scoff at.

 

[Xzi]

Steam OS has roughly 42% of the 1.94% of Linux users. Less than 1, but it's still nothing to scoff at.

True, but I'm willing to bet Valve is viewing any boost in Linux usage as a win for them and a win for user freedom in general. Windows is getting far too "live-service" for my tastes, and it sends too much data to Microsoft.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

2% actually, which is not insignificant with 120 million monthly active users. Steam is not only the biggest PC gaming platform, it's the biggest gaming platform period.


SteamOS itself feels just as slick and user-friendly as any of Sony's systems, and it gives you a lot more freedom to boot. If you're only buying Deck for modern gaming purposes, switching to the desktop mode is entirely unnecessary.

2% of 120 million is 2.4 million, of those, less than the half are on steam OS, so its like 1.2 million of steam OS users on the fucking steam (that is their envoirement to begin with).

Again, amazing numbers, Virtual Boy is in risk now. If they keep those astonishing pace for 15 years, the Wii U will be doomed.

 

[tpax]

Is… is this the year of the Linux desktop?

 

[Xzi]

2% of 120 million is 2.4 million, of those, less than the half are on steam OS, so its like 1.2 million of steam OS users on the fucking steam (that is their envoirement to begin with).

Again, amazing numbers, Virtual Boy is in risk now. If they keep those astonishing pace for 15 years, the Wii U will be doomed.

See you're operating under the false assumption that Valve cares about reaching "big three" levels of console sales. Hell, Deck can emulate Switch at full speed (and in some cases better), but that's not why they made it. They're a company that has always taken their reputation seriously, especially among gamers. If they weren't, they never would've iterated on the release version of Steam, and it would've died in the crib because it was pretty damn bad.

Put simply: Valve is the anti-Nintendo, because Ninty out here charging you $70 for a game that runs at 480p and drops to 15 FPS on their own hardware. Meanwhile I have no issue kicking ass in Elden Ring at 720p and a locked 30 FPS on Steam Deck. The real problem here is that Nintendo's customers don't respect themselves, or are just too young to know better.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

That penguin need to lose some weight.