More Linux users are starting Steam on Linux distros

Nov 2, 2014 21:51 GMT  ·  By

The latest figures from the Steam Hardware Survey show that the number of Linux users has increased for the second month in a row and they might be finally picking some speed.

Ever since the release of Steam for Linux, the number of users for this platform has been rather steady and it rarely moved in any significant way. In fact, with the exception of September, the percentage of Linux users has been dropping in small increments. It's hard to determine what makes these numbers rise and fall, but there are a few hypotheses.

Another thing that's worth remembering is the fact that the Steam Hardware Survey is not a good tool to determine the number of Linux users in the desktop PC market share, although the figures do match up somewhat with the overall global trend.

Besides the percentages that are provided by Valve, there are no other numbers attached. Users don't know how many people get that survey, how many people actually answer it, and how are those surveys distributed among platforms. It could be that the platforms are not a consideration, but we don't know that either.

Linux is rising

The first place in the Steam Hardware Survey is occupied by Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64-bit, which is actually no surprise, and the second place belongs to Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64-bit, which is also an Ubuntu-based distro. The percentage increase from September is only of 0.02% and it might not seem a lot, but this is the second month we see a rise in the numbers and the interesting months are just starting.

It's a well-known fact that most of the important game releases are made at the end of the year, before the holiday season, so it's reasonable to assume that this trend is likely to continue in the coming months.

In addition, users have to keep in mind that there is another very important number that needs to be taken into consideration. The total of Steam gamers is increasing each month, so 0.52% in October for Ubuntu is not the same with 0.52% in November, for example.

One of the reasons why there are more Linux users now might be that quite a few important games have been launched recently, including two Borderlands titles. Also, there is news that more ports are on their way, so it's possible we'll see some Windows-only players switching to Linux in the coming months as well.