Thursday, April 2nd 2026
Steam on Linux Surpasses 5% Market Share in the Latest Survey Update
As we enter a new month, Steam's Hardware and Software Survey data has been processed, providing us with a clearer view of the overall gaming market that uses Steam platform. Today, the most notable change in the Steam Survey is the increase in Linux gamers, who have moved from their historically low single-digit market share to mid-single digits. As of March, Linux-based operating systems were running Steam on 5.33% of all polled systems. This represents an impressive 3.10% increase over February's data, which showed a dip in Linux market share from January's 3.5%. Fortunately, the numbers have now been revised upwards, marking a significant improvement for the community that has been steadily implementing improvements and making Linux-based gaming more accessible to everyone.
What might not be surprising is that a large portion of those 5.33% Linux installations run on Valve's customized SteamOS operating system. With a 24.48% share, the use of SteamOS grew by 0.65% last month alone, while other Linux distributions also contributed significantly. Other Windows alternatives like macOS are gaining momentum as well, with Apple seeing a 1.19% month-over-month increase to 2.35%. Although Linux now holds more than twice the market share of macOS, its growth within the Steam install base is a significant change, nearly doubling in just a month. Perhaps these alternative operating systems are now attracting enough attention from big game studios to encourage them to release native ports instead of relying on translation tools like Wine/Proton.
Interestingly, the Windows family of operating systems still holds a large majority at 92.33%. However, this is a 4.28% reduction from February, indicating that many users have become frustrated enough with Microsoft's updates and functional issues to consider alternatives. An interesting case is Windows 7, which now holds 0.08% of Windows OS installations but saw a 0.03% increase in market share among Windows OSes. Windows 11 experienced a massive increase of 10.57%, pushing its share to 66.85%. This growth has come at the expense of Windows 10, which lost 14.89% and now holds 25.36%. Since the change is not simply a uniform upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11, it suggests that a significant number of gamers have switched to Linux and, surprisingly, macOS for their basic gaming needs.
Sources:
Steam, via Phoronix
What might not be surprising is that a large portion of those 5.33% Linux installations run on Valve's customized SteamOS operating system. With a 24.48% share, the use of SteamOS grew by 0.65% last month alone, while other Linux distributions also contributed significantly. Other Windows alternatives like macOS are gaining momentum as well, with Apple seeing a 1.19% month-over-month increase to 2.35%. Although Linux now holds more than twice the market share of macOS, its growth within the Steam install base is a significant change, nearly doubling in just a month. Perhaps these alternative operating systems are now attracting enough attention from big game studios to encourage them to release native ports instead of relying on translation tools like Wine/Proton.
50 Comments on Steam on Linux Surpasses 5% Market Share in the Latest Survey Update
They really need to stop the random polling and just poll all users. It's trivial for them to do and would give us a far more accurate representation of whats out there. I want to know how many people out there still use dual core PCs.
Anyway everything I have runs Steam on Linux usually through Bazzite. Good to see those numbers creeping up.
You have been able to submit your hardware from the steam client for like over a decade. But apparently you need the box?
I mean shit it’s literally the same screen you get after you hit yes on the survey participation.
:rockout::rockout::rockout:
The last time I remember calculating it a few months ago, Steam Deck users were ~35% of all Linux users. So Linux desktop usage is definitely increasing (for gaming, at least).
its just so hilarious i dont even have words
not doubting you, just asking where is this option??? i never knew you could arbitrarily trigger the survey?
It has been surprisingly painless for what I use my PC for (web browsing, media consumption, single-player and co-op gaming, basic 3D modelling for 3D printing) so I'm quite happy with it.
Here is the box you are used to:You can also upload all of it instead of just the fields they utilize for the survey.
Thats why I was shitting on the users in the other thread last month too that were fear mongering Valve stealing your data. Why? They could have all along, they literally give you the tools to do it yourself.
i can upload crap to steam when i change etc osrelease to something else. that is just a one liner crap file to fingerprint you more