Standalone, the figures are all not that impressive. Linux usage stands at 3.05 percent, up 0.37 percentage points from last month. However, it is a significant increase compared to the Results October 2024which showed that Linux usage was exactly two percent, an increase of just 0.13 percentage points. It is also up about 0.4 percentage points from the August survey figures.
Yes, only a little more than one percentage point per year, but compared to the total number of users, that’s a jump of about 50 percent. Adding another half to your market share within a year is not bad. Keep it up and soon you’ll be talking about real mon… oh wait, free software. Never mind.
Linked to this is another piece of analysis of the Steam-on-Linux market from Linux gaming site Boiling Steam, which reported that Windows game compatibility on Linux is set to reach a point in late October 2025. highest ever. It buries the lede a bit, but in the end it gets there:
the number of games refusing to launch is close to just 10%. This means that almost 90% of Windows games manage to launch on Linux.
To be fair, just because a game starts doesn’t mean it works well enough to play. It may start but still be unplayable for any number of reasons: being unusably slow, experiencing stutters or lags, exhibiting graphical corruption, or crashing constantly. We’ve also read that some multiplayer games use anti-cheat measures that run at a low level and talk directly to the Windows operating system – something emulation is unlikely to solve in the near future. Still, being able to run is a good start. It may be the point at which a supplier starts fixing problems, rather than telling customers that something is simply not compatible.
This cannot simply be attributed to the Steam Deck. The Register reported on this in 2021so it’s not new and shiny anymore. However, there are other, newer SteamOS gadgets. In January, Lenovo announced the first handheld with an official license shipped with Valve’s SteamOSthe Lenovo Legion Go S. However, that officially went on sale in May, so it’s a little too early to judge its impact.
It’s almost like something happened earlier in October to get a lot of people to try out Linux. What an enduring mystery through the ages. ®
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