Steam Deck is undoubtedly a popular gaming laptop, and its street credibility is helping Linux get a bigger slice of the market pie. While Windows 10 still dominates the operating system market, more Steam users than ever are playing on Unix-like versions of operating systems.
Featured by Gamingonlinux, Steam Deck has increased Linux user engagement to its highest level. According to Valve’s latest hardware survey, 1.18% of Steam users have Linux installed on their machine. Although this number seems insignificant, it actually means that more than 1.5 million gamers actively use Linux to play PC games on this platform.
SteamOS is not the most popular version of the operating system, as that title still belongs to Arch Linux. However, it already received a 7% share, which is an impressive feat considering the Steam Deck has only been around for a few months.
Valve recently announced that it will double Steam Deck shipments in Q3, so soon more users will be able to play their Steam games on the go. Naturally, this will help further increase the popularity of Linux, especially since Windows is still a bit slow on PDAs.
It’s worth noting that while Linux is gaining momentum, the numbers in question only cover machines running Steam. Alternative statistics pointing to the gaming PC market as a whole suggest that only 2.43% have Linux installed, with 76.31% on Windows. That’s not to say that Linux isn’t making progress, but there’s certainly a long way to go before Microsoft’s claim to the throne can be properly challenged.
Source : PC Gamesn
