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It looked for a little while there two years ago that gaming on Linux was finally beginning to take off, mostly thanks to Valve. That push seems to quickly be evaporating. Valve's latest Steam statistics shows that usage of both Linux and MacOS X on Steam is declining, while Windows usage is actually gaining. Linux usage on Steam is down to 0.94% from 1.05% last month, while Windows usage is up to a whopping 95.81%. Was that push for SteamOS in particular and gaming on Linux in general just all smoke?
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Linux Usage on Steam Continues to Decline
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The last time I saw him he was walking down Lover's Lane holding his own hand.
-- Fred Allen
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 28 2015, @12:11AM
It's no different for the Windows version. Obviously, Steam isn't targeted at people like you.
I think the explanation is fairly simple: Steam on Linux has failed to attract many users: it attracted some, and now they're using it, but everyone who wanted to use Steam on Linux is already doing so, so now it's not gaining any new users because the market is saturated. It didn't gain that many users because of people like this AC who are worried (rightfully or wrongfully) about DRM and losing their games if Steam closes; these people are probably far, far more prevalent on Linux than among Windows users. So Steam/Linux really needed to get a lot of converts from Windows to see big numbers, but of course very few game players ever convert from Windows to Linux.
Now, as to why it's falling, that's easy: the numbers are statistical noise (0.0105 to 0.0094???). The usage isn't changing significantly.
I applaud Valve for attempting this, and I hope they don't give it up, but it was probably wishful thinking to ever think gaming on Linux would ever become a really big thing, unfortunately. I did have high hopes for it, especially with MS screwing up Windows with the Metro UI, but unfortunately, Ballmer left the company and they made Metro more of an option to placate all the users who hated it. If Ballmer had stayed CEO and doubled down on his dumb decisions, we might be seeing more conversions to Linux now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @02:25AM
DRM
Add to that Steam's cluelessness [google.com] charging for something that had previously been gratis.
I wouldn't be surprised if a plot of new Steam+Linux users shows an inflection point that week.
Maybe committed Steam+Windoze users accept that sort of thing more readily.
Steam/Linux really needed to get a lot of converts from Windows
Yup--and that would require something that Just Worked being ready and for sale in quantities.
Steam dropped the ball not having that available during the gift-giving holidays.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 28 2015, @10:20PM
Perhaps the number of Linux users is static, and the number of Windows users is going?