Although it might seem like a small number, reaching 3% of Steam’s players is quite an achievement for the penguin’s operating system.
When we read that something has reached a 3% market share, it might appear insignificant. However, this result is historic for an operating system like Linux—especially in the world of gaming.
Steam Deck Helps Linux Users Surpass 3% on Steam for the First Time
For years, Windows has dominated Steam’s player base. Over 95% of users played on Microsoft’s operating system. Now, for the first time in a long while, Linux has managed to reduce that number.
According to Steam’s October 2025 hardware and software survey, Linux is now used by 3.05% of all players, representing a 0.41% increase compared to the previous survey. The current situation looks like this:
- Windows: 94.84% (−0.75%)
- Linux: 3.05% (+0.41%)
- macOS: 2.11% (+0.34%)
Estimated Number of Linux Gamers
For now, Valve has not released exact figures on how many players use Linux, as it has not shared those details since 2022. However, based on available data, there could be around 4 million players using Linux. In fact, the number might be even higher—between 4 to 6 million users—considering Steam Deck sales are included in these figures.
Valve’s handheld console is the main reason for this growth. Additionally, various Linux distributions have made significant improvements, increasingly focusing on optimizing gaming performance. Who knows—perhaps in the future, Linux could truly challenge Windows in the gaming space.
