~~202120222023~~2024 is the year of the Linux desktop
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Linux Gaming
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When looking at the Steam Linux breakdown, the SteamOS Holo that powers the Steam Deck is now accounting for around 42% of all Linux gamers on Steam.
While the increase is great, it - sadly - doesn't look like it.
Hey, I use the desktop on my Steam Deck all the time for normal computer use!
2077
Even though this is mostly because of the Steam Deck, it's still great news. More people get to try out Linux and find out how good the support for gaming on Linux is nowadays. Some may even feel compelled to switch to it on their main machine, especially after Microsoft drops Windows 10 support and forces everyone to upgrade to Windows 11 (which, while certainly better now, still feels like a downgrade IMO).
Agreed, and as a side not the steam deck is actually fucking awesome.
I'm not seeing anyone comment on the last paragraph of the article, so I'll paste it here.
With the SteamOS / Steam Deck monthly numbers not showing any magnificent gains, I am curious over this 0.5% increase for Linux gaming overall and whether it's genuine.
The likely explanation is when looking at the demographics and seeing Steam by Chinese users dropping 3.4% while the English usage picked up by 3.4%. Chinese gamers and reporting differences there have previously vastly swayed Steam statistics in prior months.
So this might just be a maths artifact.
Are there numbers on Steam Deck sales?
All they said for sure was they sold out their first two production runs which were based on pre-order numbers, and that was over 1mil at the time they said that. Found this quote though:
"According to Omdia, the Steam Deck sold an estimated 1.62 million units in 2022, and is on track to sell about 1.85 million units throughout 2023. This would push total Steam Deck unit sales to 3.47 million by the end of 2023."
So if true, they blew through those first units super fast, and then ramped production again. I'm sure they sold a ton last month when t was 20% off for Summer Sale as well.
nice
I made the switch fully recently. It's honestly nicer overall for sure. Glad to see things picking up. The more that move over, the more support Linux will get.
Thank you for sharing, great to see we are growing!
Niceee, let's go my dudes and dudettes.
Is there a breakdown of Steam Deck vs other Linux?
literally open the article
I was hoping someone would be kind enough to tell me.
I come to the comments so I don't have to read the article as well.
Then I'll add extra comments using only the information in the comments section.
This is the way
It's also the thumbnail for the link. I don't know what the input is for other apps but on sync I could long press it to hover the image with the breakdown and one of the others I used just makes the previews fit to begin with.
But since I'm such a great servant to random people, deck: as in title, arch Linux and Ubuntu: 0.1 and change, Manjaro and mint(? I already forgot): 0.0something ... I have 256kb of memory and most of it is reserved by bloatware.
I’m happy for the growth— but are we sure this isn’t just from the increased counts due to the steam deck?
I read further; “When looking at the Steam Linux breakdown, the SteamOS Holo that powers the Steam Deck is now accounting for around 42% of all Linux gamers on Steam. “
Basically the Linux usebase doubled thanks to the Deck.
Just installed Pop OS a few days ago and already got the survey, so I guess I'm helping?
That said, gaming on Linux is still a bit too fiddly to set up for your average person. Out of the 6 games I played so far, I had to tinker with 3 of them to get them running, despite having none of these problems on a Steam Deck. Though the common theme seems to be non-Steam launchers (Ubisoft Connect, Riot Games and FFXIV) causing them.
For non-gaming purposes (browsing, programming, multimedia) on the other hand it's been smooth sailing.
Good to see the continued growth
"Spikes"? Come on, guys, .04 percent is a rounding error.
It went from 1.5% to nearly 2% thats quite a big spike