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Phoronix

The Register

In a significant development for the gaming community, Steam on Linux has surpassed a 3% market share for the first time in October 2025, marking a critical milestone in Linux gaming. According to the latest Steam Survey results, Linux gaming reached 3.05% market share, representing a 50% increase from the previous year’s 2%. This growth signals growing interest and adoption among users, with more than 4 million monthly active users engaging in Linux gaming.
The rising popularity of Linux gaming can be attributed to several factors, including the enhanced capability of compatibility layers such as Proton and WINE. ProtonDB reports that nearly 90% of Windows games can now run on Linux systems. The compatibility ranges from platinum-rated games, which work perfectly out of the box, to others that require tweaking or don’t launch at all. Despite challenges with anti-cheat software, the increase in platinum-rated releases highlights the improvements in cross-platform gaming.
A crucial driver behind this surge is the widespread adoption of the Steam Deck, which accounts for 27.18% of Linux gaming distributions. New devices entering the market, such as Lenovo’s Legion Go S, powered by SteamOS, further strengthen this growth. Additionally, the discontinuation of support for Windows 10 has encouraged many users to explore alternative operating systems, with Linux becoming a viable option, particularly for gaming.
Popular Linux distributions contributing to this growth include Arch Linux, Linux Mint, CachyOS, and Bazzite. Steam’s overall ecosystem is also expanding, and with potential new hardware like the rumored Steam Frame VR kit, the future of Linux gaming looks promising and poised for further development beyond SteamOS. As macOS increases its market share to 2.11%, Linux’s continued expansion in the gaming arena signifies a dynamic shift in the operating system landscape, offering gamers a wider range of choices than ever before.

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Linux gaming on Steam has crossed 3% market share for the first time, reaching 3.05% in October 2025—a 50% increase from the previous year. This growth is driven by improved compatibility layers like Proton (enabling 90% of Windows games to run on Linux), the popularity of Steam Deck (accounting for 27% of Linux gaming), and Windows 10's end of support pushing users toward alternatives. Popular distributions include Arch Linux, Linux Mint, CachyOS, and Bazzite, with new hardware like Lenovo's Legion Go S further expanding the ecosystem.

Rising Viability of Linux Gaming as Nearly 90% of Windows Games Now Compatible

Three weeks ago I was surprised, that some games are running pretty good on my 4 year old Intel NUC machine with Linux Mint, working on laptop i7 processor. I was surprised, because that tiny computer doesn’t have any strong GPU, just internal Intel Iris integrated one. These games was rather old - like supreme commander II. For me fact that it just installed and worked flawlessly was surprising. After that success I decided that my second computer will be also sanitized from windows virus, and I plan linux bazzite on it :)
I need to make work Affinity package on it, this is the only app which I want to use on it.

I’ve been on Linux for the last four weeks, and I feel great. I can even play older games like GTA: San Andreas with mods without weird crashes.

Been using Linux as my daily driver for a few weeks, CachyOS has been great and I’ve had no issues with any of the games I’ve played so far. Also, ProtonDB is such a useful resource to know what performance to expect with games in my library!

I only play one game, age of empires. Running that on macOS or linux “works” with weird emulators or other tools but it’s always a fight and has bugs and is not smooth. This is not really a useful state

More devs will make games for Linux, Steam will drive the Linux gaming experience along with the other authors that made amazing advancements towards it, and Windows seems to continue to sabotage themselves.
With the Linux desktop experience getting better with COSMIC and Omarchy, the combination of these factors are working in favor of Linux adoption like I’ve never seen.