Monday, August 2nd 2021

Valve's Steam Hardware Survey Shows Progress for Gaming on Linux, Breaking 1% Marketshare

When Valve made a debut of Proton for Steam on Linux, the company committed to enabling Linux gamers from across the globe to play all of the latest games available for the Windows platform, on their Linux distributions. Since the announcement, the market share of people who game on Linux has been rather stagnating for a while. When Proton was announced, the Linux gaming market share jumped to 2%, according to a Valve survey. However, later on, it dropped and remained at the stagnating 0.8~0.9% mark. Today, according to the latest data obtained from Steam Hardware Survey, we see that the Linux gaming market share has reached 1.0% in July, making for a +0.14% increase. What drove the spike in usage is unknown, however, it is interesting to see the new trend. You can check out the Steam Hardware Survey data here.
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43 Comments on Valve's Steam Hardware Survey Shows Progress for Gaming on Linux, Breaking 1% Marketshare

#27
Space Lynx
Astronaut
DeathtoGnomesDont know if anyone seen this yet...

www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-Valve-New-CPU-Freq
it's nice news, but at end of day its still just 30- 60 fps gaming with no freesync (you will get tearing and stuttering often since this chip won't play new titles smoothly, especially since it is up to the end user to calibrate settings unlike a console) I expect many will try to get away with high settings when they should be on medium or low for smoothness.
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#28
AusWolf
lynx29it's nice news, but at end of day its still just 30- 60 fps gaming with no freesync (you will get tearing and stuttering often since this chip won't play new titles smoothly, especially since it is up to the end user to calibrate settings unlike a console) I expect many will try to get away with high settings when they should be on medium or low for smoothness.
That's one thing. The other thing is, it still won't bring native DirectX support to Linux, as unfortunately only Microsoft can do that - and they won't.
Posted on Reply
#29
Space Lynx
Astronaut
AusWolfThat's one thing. The other thing is, it still won't bring native DirectX support to Linux, as unfortunately only Microsoft can do that - and they won't.
Doesn't ProtonDB do this already though? I mean how else are these DX only titles running on Linux? Perhaps I simply don't understand (I don't... new to Linux)
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#30
Ja.KooLit
AusWolfThat's one thing. The other thing is, it still won't bring native DirectX support to Linux, as unfortunately only Microsoft can do that - and they won't.
proton wine lutris . it wont work same way as direct X but thats what compatibility layer is for. to trick the system that it is running under windows.

But game devs should support vulkan. its just way better than directX
Posted on Reply
#31
spnidel
woah... they now have 1.01% market share?!
this is.... INSANE!
YEAR OF THE LINUX, BOYS
Posted on Reply
#32
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
Gruffalo.Soldier96% windows, i can't see that changing too much for the foreseeable. For me 1% is no where near enough to even look at Linux as main OS
Why not? The choice for OS should be what it's capable of doing, not its adoption by the masses. My tower has Ubuntu on it, Steam runs great and proton works 9/10 times. Performance is good and I don't have to reinstall the OS on a regular basis. The only valid reason I see for not considering Linux for your daily driver is because you use something that requires Windows, like games that require some form of DRM that's incompatible with Proton or some other application. Beyond that, the only reason not to is because it's unfamiliar and people don't like change, not to mention that it's work to install Linux when most PCs come with Windows.

Honestly, most people use Windows because that's what comes installed on their computer. That's the reality of it. If Linux were preinstalled on most PCs being sold, I think we'd see that be reflected in usage by the masses, but unless that happens, there will never be widespread adoption because your typical user isn't going to be installing an OS.
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#33
TheinsanegamerN
RavenasI love Linux, and right now personal favorite is Pop OS. SteamOS was my favorite, but hasn't been updated in sometime (Steam Deck will change this with Arch 3.0). The problem is feature sets are missing for high end pc gaming, and lack of overall support of many different software packages.

Some examples:
  • No HDR support.
  • FPS loss due to Vulkan / OpenGL versus DirectX, developers don't spend enough time optimizing.
  • Lack of full feature GPU driver packages. AMD cards, WATTMAN no solution. Thanks for MESA, but we need more.
  • Lack of peripheral software package, i.e., gaming headsets (many rely on driver packages for virtual surround and other features) and keyboard.
  • Lack of great game support outside of Steam... PROTON THANK YOU VALVE. However, Lutris just isn't enough for some of the smaller subset of games not on Steam.
The benefits of free and open come with cons as the platform is still under polished development, but has made tremendous strides.
If you're using PopOS, then your poor framerates are likely tied to your MESA drivers, which are horribly out of date on anythign that is ubuntu derivative. Trivial to fix, updating to the latest makes a night and day difference on my RX 560. From ~34 FPS at medium settings on tropico 4 to 60 FPS at maximum settings with VSYNC.

A lot of people who compalin about framerate issues are usually using an oudates MESA driver, or worse, an nvidia card.

The lack of packages is a pain, but OTOH, if you dont have all the LEET GAMERZ stuff, it wont affect you. Regular headsets work fine without special software, and newer light up keyboards have open source software available to them.
ExcuseMeWtfWow 1% after how many years? At rather optimistic, not even linear rate it'd be what? A century for 20%?
There's more nuance to that number.

Linux actually peaked at either 1.14 or 1.16% WAYYY back in 2013 when steaem for linux first appeared, then the percentage quickly dropped to the .7 range, and has been slowly climbing since. The key here is the total number of users hasnt gone down. At the previous high, steam had 65 million total users and roughly 5-6 million daily active users. Today steam has 120 million montly active users and 62.6 million DAILY users. Montly counts from 2013 are hard to find but the total monthly active was 67 million in 2017.

That would mean roughly 1.2 million monthly linux users, a not small number of people, and a dramatic increase from 2017, when linux would have had roughly 500-550k users by the same metric.
Posted on Reply
#34
AusWolf
lynx29Doesn't ProtonDB do this already though? I mean how else are these DX only titles running on Linux? Perhaps I simply don't understand (I don't... new to Linux)
I'm not an expert on this, but as far as I know Proton is still just emulation, and as such, isn't perfect.
Aquinusproton works 9/10 times
That. I like compatibility and simplicity, so I'm not taking any chances.
Posted on Reply
#35
TheinsanegamerN
AusWolfI'm not an expert on this, but as far as I know Proton is still just emulation, and as such, isn't perfect.


That. I like compatibility and simplicity, so I'm not taking any chances.
It's a translation layer, not an emulator. An emulator would be running either a full or cut down version of windows under the hood.
Posted on Reply
#36
AusWolf
TheinsanegamerNIt's a translation layer, not an emulator. An emulator would be running either a full or cut down version of windows under the hood.
Thanks. As I said, I'm not an expert. :D It still can't be as good as the real thing itself.
Posted on Reply
#37
Ravenas
TheinsanegamerNIf you're using PopOS, then your poor framerates are likely tied to your MESA drivers, which are horribly out of date on anythign that is ubuntu derivative. Trivial to fix, updating to the latest makes a night and day difference on my RX 560. From ~34 FPS at medium settings on tropico 4 to 60 FPS at maximum settings with VSYNC.

A lot of people who compalin about framerate issues are usually using an oudates MESA driver, or worse, an nvidia card.

The lack of packages is a pain, but OTOH, if you dont have all the LEET GAMERZ stuff, it wont affect you. Regular headsets work fine without special software, and newer light up keyboards have open source software available to them.
No. Obiaf ppa doesn't help either. It's not really a driver issue, it's lack of proper optimization for Vulkan or OpenGL.

Not having access to basic software for keyboards, headsets, music, and other software platforms has nothing to do with being a l33t gamer.
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#38
ThrashZone
Hi,
Maybe linux can break 1% again when win-10 support ends on 2025.
Posted on Reply
#39
Ravenas
ThrashZoneHi,
Maybe linux can break 1% again when win-10 support ends on 2025.
Linux will break 1% on Steam Deck release.
Posted on Reply
#40
R-T-B
lynx29Sauron's
Sauroman, noob
Posted on Reply
#41
Space Lynx
Astronaut
R-T-BSauroman, noob
Incorrect, Sauron ordered Sauroman to create the army. So it is technically Sauron's army.

Rights of Property, 1776.
Posted on Reply
#42
Unregistered
lynx29Incorrect, Sauron ordered Sauroman to create the army. So it is technically Sauron's army.

Rights of Property, 1776.
It's Saruman :p
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