451
submitted 6 months ago by cm0002@lemmy.zip to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.world

Steam on Linux use has hit an all-time high! With the Steam Survey results for October 2025 coming out this evening, Steam on Linux has finally cracked the 3% threshold! A few months back Steam on Linux was close to 3% before stumbling a bit but now it's above that elusive threshold. The only time Steam on Linux use was close to the 3% mark was when Steam on Linux initially debuted a decade ago and at that time the overall Steam user-base was much smaller than it is today. Long story short, thanks to the ongoing success of Valve's Steam Deck and other handhelds plus Steam Play (Proton) working out so well, these October numbers are the best yet.

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[-] karashta@piefed.social 91 points 6 months ago

Happy to have joined that 3% a week or so ago

[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 6 months ago
[-] breakcore@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 6 months ago
[-] KotActually@startrek.website 5 points 6 months ago

Same! I'm about a month into properly running Mint Cinnamon ans it's been a lovely experience. Glad to be part of the team

[-] karashta@piefed.social 2 points 6 months ago

I've been using LMDE with cinnamon. Really loving it!

[-] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 56 points 6 months ago

according to Google, Steam has 147 million monthly active users

3.05% of 147 million is about 4.48 million Linux Steam monthly users

[-] noxypaws@pawb.social 2 points 6 months ago

according to Google

huh? why would Google know more than Valve about this?

[-] nkk@programming.dev 32 points 6 months ago

how much to make all the big shooter games allow linux on their anticheats

[-] voytrekk@sopuli.xyz 32 points 6 months ago

I think it will more likely happen if windows kicks games out of kernel space.

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago

There’s little reason to force them out given games run temporarily. We’re more likely to see security products move out of the kernel first since they run full time and from boot (meaning there’s stronger implications if they fail in kernel space e.g. Crowdstrike). And even then, they’re not forcing them out, just offering APIs in user space to negate the need to be running in the kernel for those use cases.

I’d love to see games denied the ability to run drivers in kernel space on Windows but I don’t think we’ll see that any time soon.

[-] Neptr 29 points 6 months ago

Sorry to say, but game anticheats can also run whenever like the malware they are.

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Yes but many don’t. And the risk impact of BSODing gaming computers vs business systems is dramatically different.

We won’t see MS do anything about kernel drivers until the majority of security industry has moved to whatever new userspace APIs MS release.

Even then, do gaming anti cheat developers really care?

IMO simply vote with your wallet and don’t buy games that need kernel drivers and still fail to address cheaters who always find a way around.

[-] qweertz@programming.dev 8 points 6 months ago

Vanguard literally always spies on your PC from a most privileged location

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

What’s that got to do with MS’s decision to kick them out? What’s the Venn diagram of mission critical systems and systems running Valorant/League?

I’m not disagreeing that these bullshitty kernel drivers running from boot exist, I’m stating that MS aren’t going to do shit about it if even more risky kernel drivers aren’t planned to be removed from the OS and there’s plenty of other popular anti cheat drivers that are only loaded at runtime.

[-] GreyCat@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

I think the point is that, if Microsoft actually makes an API for the features that kernel-level software needs. They are going to boot everyone out of the kernel, mission critical systems and anti-cheat systems included.

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

I know people in the working group in the cybersecurity space working with MS on these APIs and this really isn’t their plan. They aren’t doing it to kick people out - cybersecurity want out for themselves as no one wants to do a CrowdStrike.

There are countless other use cases for kernel drivers that won’t be in scope of the APIs being drafted.

[-] DrWorm@lemmy.world 28 points 6 months ago

Been playing ARC Raiders on Linux the past couple of days.

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

I can't get the damn thing to load on my machine -_-

[-] domi@lemmy.secnd.me 5 points 6 months ago

Did you try with Proton-GE? Regular Proton would not load for me for some reason.

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 months ago

I did, I tried multiple Proton versions, tried experimental and tried it with the bleeding edge beta option.

None of them acted differently, all if them loaded the black screen with the loading icon bottom right and then crashed and gave no details on why it crashed at all.

[-] qweertz@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago

Proton-GE is a 3rd party tool I always use when a game doesn't start with a Valve Proton version

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 months ago

Ah OK. I have refunded it now so can't try as I spent nearly 2 hours "in game" time trying to get the thing working and didn't want to go past that 2 hour threshold and then be stuck with an expensive game I couldn't play.

[-] qweertz@programming.dev 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I would really recommend you take a look at ProtonDB when it comes to troubleshooting like that, it is one of if not the best resources for that kind of stuff

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 6 months ago

Thanks for the recommendation :)

[-] kate@lemmy.uhhoh.com 1 points 6 months ago

for some reason mine crashes if i tab out while it's loading into a map. fwiw.

[-] ne0phyte@feddit.org 1 points 6 months ago

What does the log say? PROTON_LOG=1 launch parameter and then check your home directory.

[-] bagelberger@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I had a problem loading it during the playtest (black screen, forever loading icon) and had to install Proton EasyAntiCheat Runtime for it to start up properly. Never had a problem launching the playtest or full game after that!

[-] theskyisfalling@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 6 months ago

Thanks for the suggestion, that is one of the things I tried that did not work though :(

[-] neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 6 months ago

I read somewhere that Mac started to get more support for previously windows only apps once they hit 5% market share.

It’s been like a decade since I’ve read that, so who knows the source.

[-] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 6 months ago

Cs2 and tf2 is already on here, idk what you're talking about

[-] pentastarm@piefed.ca 21 points 6 months ago

Same here. Installed Kubuntu on my gaming laptop about 3 months ago. Last week switched to Bazzite (was having issues with a few games not running, Sable being one of them, and didnt feel like messing around with the settings any more). Really loving Bazzite and the fact that games are just working now with minimal to zero messing with various settings.

[-] Hazzard@lemmy.zip 4 points 6 months ago

Very nice! Sable was actually the first game I played through on Bazzite myself!

Game's a bit janky (it was janky on Xbox too, when I played it there years ago, with exploration stuttering so badly I vowed to return on PC later), so it was a little stressful in that I wasn't sure if the issues were due to the game's code or something with Proton, etc😆

But overall a wonderful experience, and an impressive indie debut. I stuck with it until I had all masks this time around!

[-] pentastarm@piefed.ca 2 points 6 months ago

Yeah! I got it free through Epic right when I switched to Kubuntu. It's a fun game now that I've actually gotten to play it (just left the valley lol).

I mention in a few of my other posts, I have an older Asus Tuf gaming laptop with an Nvidia GTX 1050. I knew I had to download the proprietary drivers for the 1050, but I wasn't sure which ones, so I think I initially downloaded the 535 drivers. Anyway, Sable launched okay (playing through Heroic), I was able to play until I got into the initial camp, then it crashed and never started up again. I was bummed.

But switching to Bazzite and downloading everything again, and it's just working. I didnt change anything, didnt have to mess with any settings. It's awesome!

[-] RepleteLocum 14 points 6 months ago

Steam sent me a survey yesterday. Proud to be a part of those 3%.

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 14 points 6 months ago

Best we can do is Mac support and blocking Linux

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

What are you talking about?

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 11 points 6 months ago

Despite Linux growth Mac is constantly better supported by Devs.

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It doesn't explain the previous comment tho. The "block Linux" is what I'm not getting. Did you mean drop Linux native, because proton/wine is so good that it isn't necessary?

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 2 points 6 months ago

Linux machines get banned instead of support.

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Which brings me back to. "What are you saying?". Banning from what?

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's common knowledge that games like Apex Legends blocked Linux access or deployed an anti-cheat that previously was fine, that then players got bans for. Source: I'm taking you to Reddit, deal with it https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1iszbmu/games_that_banned_linux/

EA forums https://forums.ea.com/discussions/apex-legends-technical-issues-en/re-linux-players-getting-banned/5573054

Fairlight 84 https://steamcommunity.com/app/1928420/discussions/0/600788619628804058/

Overwatch https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/09/14/caution-playing-overwatch-on-linux-may-get-you-banned/

Fuck me you're needy, it was a light-hearted comment, if you spent any time in the Linux gaming space, I wouldn't have to spoon-feed you a joke. Have a good one.

No I'm not explaining what the one is :D

[-] okamiueru@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

Sheesh. Another community I'm more than happy to ignore.

[-] sirico@feddit.uk 1 points 6 months ago

No worries, hope you find somewhere that suits you. Just for future chats if you’re genuinely curious, try to ease up a bit and be more polite. You came across more contrarian than conversational, so I matched that energy while still giving you what you asked for.

[-] kieron115@startrek.website 6 points 6 months ago

something something year of the linux destkop

[-] BilSabab@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

That's some good news!

this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2025
451 points (100.0% liked)

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