7 ms·
Looking at the most recent Steam Hardware & Software Survey, Linux share is at 0.72% and shrinking (a year ago it was 0.81% two years ago it was 0.89%).
by WillPostForFood 9y ago
Looking at the most recent Steam Hardware & Software Survey, Linux share is at 0.72% and shrinking (a year ago it was 0.81% two years ago it was 0.89%).
- shmerl 9y agoI already pointed out multiple times, that Steam survey is useless for evaluating Linux gaming market. Why would Steam even need a survey? They have full stats available, but they aren't public. And what's important is sales potential, which you can evaluate by sales percentages per OS for cross platform games. Steam doesn't publish such numbers. Humble Bundle does though.
- maratc 9y agoWhen you purchase from Humble Bundle, they don't know what platform you would use to play. All they know is what platform you're buying from. People who use their Android phones to purchase and pay Humble Bundle, get classified under "Linux". You can see big Linux platform numbers even for bundles that don't have a single Linux game.
- shmerl 9y agoBut they give you an option to indicate it. Which isn't any worse than a survey, but focuses on actual sales in contrast to what Steam publishes.
- Armisael16 9y agoSteam's survey reads the platform - the user has almost no role in actually filling it out beyond saying 'yes, you can collect this data'. This makes it significantly better than requiring each and every user to act to specify their platform.
- shmerl 9y agoSteam survey isn't comprehensive. HB sales are counted for all users. So I'd say the later is actually useful, the former is just some oddity.
- danieldk 9y agoI already pointed out multiple times, that Steam survey is useless for evaluating Linux gaming market. Why would Steam even need a survey? They have full stats available, but they aren't public. I wouldn't be surprised if a survey actually overestimated the number of Linux users. Using Linux for gaming is a choice and usually a more difficult path than gaming on Windows. So, Linux users are likely move vocal about their use of Linux, for various reasons: (1) it's often a principled choice; (2) by showing that a significant chunk uses Linux, more gaming studios will target Linux. tl;dr: it would be nice if Valve released actual stats, but I think the survey is a good ballpark figure. In other words, the market is pretty much non-existent.
- shmerl 9y agoI wouldn't worry about total number of Steam users or their percentages. It's pretty irrelevant. What's more important, is potential of sales per OS. So for all intents and purposes, that survey is pretty useless. But numbers from HB are actually something you can evaluate. > by showing that a significant chunk uses Linux, more gaming studios will target Linux. That's already happening, if you paid attention.
- sbarre 9y agoYou're being pretty confrontational here, and I don't think it's necessary.. No matter which way you slice it, the Linux gaming community is tiny when compared to Windows and consoles. Sure, it's growing, and there are more and more games coming to the OS, and more choices = better of course. But we are a long way from Linux being a platform that matters in the overall computer gaming world.
- shmerl 9y agoI'm not confrontational. I just prefer when those Steam numbers aren't used like some absolute indicator of some situation, and they often are. They aren't demonstrating sales potential, so developers shouldn't use them for evaluating viability of Linux releases.
- WillPostForFood 9y agoWhy would Steam even need a survey? Because they need permission from the user to collect the data. Even if the data is undercounting Linux (maybe Linux games are less likely to take the survey) the trend is consistently down for ~4 years now. So you might make a case that the size is bigger than the survey shows, but not that it is growing.
- shmerl 9y agoTrend down doesn't mean the number of Linux gamers is decreasing. Even if you assume the survey is correct and representative, it can simply mean the number of Windows gamers on Steam is increasing faster. Besides, Linux gamers are less likely to use Steam than Windows ones (DRM-free preference). From DRM-free stores, GOG unfortunately don't publish any stats, and stats from HB show pretty good Linux percentage.
- WillPostForFood 9y agoI agree, it only means the share is shrinking, not the absolute numbers. Given the large overall Steam growth rate, it is certain the absolute number has increased. Nonetheless, it isn't a great story for Linux gaming.
- vacri 9y agoDo they count SteamBoxes in the linux share?
- shmerl 9y agoFrom what I've heard - surprisingly not. I'm not using Steam though, so I can't say for sure.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- WillPostForFood 9y agoThe survey doesn't show up when you are in big picture mode. Since Steam machines boot into big picture mode, they will never get the survey unless they switch over to desktop mode, which takes some effort. That would account for some of the Linux under counting.
- shmerl 9y agoIt just shows that Valve themselves don't take that survey seriously, if they don't even count specialized hardware targeted for SteamOS. So I wouldn't use those numbers for any far reaching conclusions.
- MachinShinn- 9y agoNobody uses SteamOS or Linux for gaming. It baffles me that people like you go to such lengths to push Linux for Desktop... I tried using Linux on several occassions over the last 10-15 years. It was never easy or fun. All the GUIs felt like they were from the 90s and nothing worked out of the box. I tried Ubunutu, Mint, Arch, and a few others. My last attempt at it was ~2014. Maybe I'll hate myself enough to try Linux again in a year or two...
- SmellyGeekBoy 9y agoIt baffles me when people use the "I couldn't get it to work so it obviously doesn't work for anyone" argument, even in the face of statistics that prove otherwise. Ho hum.