The Steam Hardware Survey for June is not flattering

Jul 2, 2015 11:33 GMT  ·  By

The Steam for Linux platform got a great start, but for some strange reason the number of users has constantly been decreasing for the past few months and it looks like it's not stopping, although the rate seems to be changing.

Up until three months ago, the percentage of Steam for Linux users was about 1.15, with minor variations. It stayed at this value for a least a year and the Linux member of the community were wondering why it's not growing, despite the fact that lots of new games have landed with support for the open source platform. Suddenly, those numbers changed dramatically, and now the percentage sits at 0.87%.

It's not clear why this is happening, but the situation is not as clear as you might think. The problem is that we don't know anything about the Steam Hardware Survey and how it's conducted. We don't know how many people respond to these surveys, what percentage of the user base gets it, and if the surveys are offered to a random sample of the population and not proportionally to the size of the platform.

Linux is dropping, but for how long?

If we take the Steam numbers at face value, then we are left with only two scenarios. Either the number of Steam for Linux users is really dropping, or Valve changed the way Linux users are counted. It's difficult to surmise why there would be fewer Linux users now, after so much time, so the most likely explanation is that something else is happening, and it's not something transparent.

In any case, the Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS 64-bit takes the first place, seconded by Ubuntu 15.04 64-bit, and Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca 64-bit. There is little to no information regarding the Linux use of Steam, so this is pretty much the summary of gaming on the open source platform.