Gaming on Linux is now accounting for 3% of players, according to the Steam Survey
The Linux gaming community has reached a new milestone, with Steam on Linux finally surpassing 3% of the total user base according to Valve’s latest Steam Hardware Survey for October 2025.
The new data shows Linux systems now account for 3.05% of all active Steam users, marking a 0.41% increase month-over-month and the highest share since Steam for Linux debuted over a decade ago. For comparison, Linux represented only 2.00% of Steam users in October 2024. Windows continues to dominate with 94.84%, slipping below 95% for the first time in months, while macOS holds 2.11%.
Source: Steam/Valve
According to the Linux-specific breakdown, SteamOS now represents about one-third of all Linux gaming systems, or roughly 27% of the Linux segment. This growth is largely attributed to the success of Valve’s Steam Deck and other handheld PCs running SteamOS or Proton-based Linux distributions.
AMD continues to lead among Linux users with 67.1% CPU share, while Intel accounts for 32.9%, a small gain from the previous survey. This, of course, is not surprising given that the SteamDeck is running on AMD hardware.
Source: Steam/Valve
The 3% milestone reflects steady growth for Linux gaming, supported by the rise of handheld systems and Proton’s ongoing improvements. Many handheld tests also indicate that Linux can deliver slightly better gaming performance, even when using emulation.
Now if only someone ported my favorite Windows apps to Linux, not much would be holding me back from moving.
