Steam For Linux Adoption Closes In On Mac


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Full Steam Ahead

The raw figures

The raw figures

For those of you who have been abroad the Linux Steam train since the early betas late last year, things are really on the up & up.

Valve has just released its February, 2013 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, and the results are absolutely mind blowing.  Linux is now standing strong as a legitimate gaming platform.  It now represents 2.02% of all active Steam users.  Well 2% is not a game-changing number right now, it is pretty dramatic when you consider a couple of other key metrics.  For starters, the Mac represents 3.07% of Steam’s userbase.  While that number is over 30% greater than Steam for Linux, it means nothing considering Steam for Mac debuted 3 years ago on May 12, 2010.

The first stable release of Steam for Linux debuted last month.  Eat your heart out John Carmack.

This number is only going to go up from here.  With the heavy advertising Valve has been doing within the Steam client, and the ease of Linux installation on PC hardware, there will be plenty of people trying out the service on Linux.  So, having said that, where do you think the numbers will be next time?

Source  | Steam Hardware & Software Survey

Dean Howell
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Dean Howell has over a decade of experience with Linux and nearly 2 decades of experience with computers in general. Currently, Dean is Editor-in-chief of The Powerbase and also works for one of the world's largest providers of Linux-based NVRs.

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  • http://nileshgr.com/ Nilesh Govindrajan

    There’s no trace of Ubuntu on the hwsurvey page when I open it??

    – Never mind found it

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jouni-Osmala/100000909450105 Jouni Osmala

    Small mistake in article. 3 is 50% greater than 2. While 2 is 33% less than 3.

  • http://www.digifail.com/ Tom Nardi

    I stopped PC gaming years ago (outside of a few indie games like Minecraft and KSP), mainly because I wasn’t running Windows anymore.

    Now that Linux actually seems to be going “mainstream” (probably a strong word), and is getting better gaming support, I wonder if that’s going to change.

    Will I once again have to actually give thought to gaming when I build my next machine? It’s kind of a scary thought after all these years.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Des-Akkari/100001144745158 Des Akkari

      agree 100%…the consoles are going to be pushing people this way because of the expense.

  • Matt H

    Actually numbers would be a little higher, some of us are running arch linux

  • http://www.facebook.com/andorjkiss Andor Kiss

    Probably a lot of people who were using WINE or POL (and were polled as “Windows” users) have now switched to Linux native STEAM client.

  • 2briancox

    What were the “Other” category stats prior to any Linux release?

    I’m thinking those are mostly Debian, Arch, Fedora, SUSE, Pinguy, Ultimate Edition, Mageia … etc etc.

  • http://soltesza.wordpress.com/ sola

    I tried to setup one of the Steam alphas on my Linux Mint 14 x64 MATE machine but not much success.

    I will definitely try it again now that Steam is officially released.

    I will buy some game – even if I am not a heavy gamer type nowadays – just to show that there IS demand on Linux.

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  • justNiz

    The figures are really surprising to me considering that pretty much all the games available on steam for Linux are total budget crap compared to whats available on Mac and especially Windows. I mean I really looked hard for something worth buying just so I could show my support for Linux Steam but honestly there was absolutely nothing even close to anything I would ever want to play.

    I really hope they bring some real premium 3D titles to Linux soon. Like maybe a Linux port of Skyrim or something. Then they will see the Linux games sales numbers really fly.

    • Mountain Man

      For the record, Crusader Kings II and FTL are not “budget crap” by any stretch of the imagination.

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  • Axion

    One wonders how much of the “other” are also Linux based oses.

  • Mountain Man

    Now we just need some AAA developers (other than Valve) to start taking Linux seriously.

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