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Games: Steam's November 2025 Hardware Survey and Microsoft Ranting About GNU/Linux Growing Among Gamers
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Steam's November 2025 Hardware Survey Shows Linux Hitting A New All-Time High
It has been intriguing to see how the majority of people are playing games on Steam. Each month, Valve produces a new hardware survey, giving us a clear example of which operating systems are most used, which GPUs are the most popular, and so much more. Now that November has ended, we can see the results of this new survey, and we can see that Linux has hit a new all-time high!
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TechSpot ☛ November Steam survey: AMD CPUs and Linux hit new records as RTX 5000 series surges
Valve has released the latest Steam hardware survey, and it's yet another case of a new month, a new top GPU. A more interesting takeaway from November is how popular the RTX 5000 line was over the last 30 days. Plus, for the third consecutive month, AMD has reached a record high in the CPU category, getting ever closer to the 50%-share milestone in its battle with Intel.
Starting with the GPU section, much of this year has seen the RTX 3060, RTX 4060, and RTX 4060 Laptop GPU swapping places at the top. Last month was the RTX 3060's turn, this month it's the RTX 4060 laptop that's most popular among survey participants.
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Windows Central ☛ Windows 10’s demise fuels Linux hype again — but will Bazzite finally break the “forever up‑and‑comer” curse? There's a chance. [Ed: The voice of Microsoft]
Update
More on Steam:
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Tom's Hardware ☛ Linux usage hits an all-time high in Steam Hardware Survey—and AMD processors continue their march against Intel
Most folks in tech enthusiast circles have heard of - or own - a Steam Deck and have possibly even installed SteamOS-based Linux distributions like Bazzite or Chimera. The small but growing backlash against Windows 11's strict hardware requirements and forced upgrades may have become evident in the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey, which shows an all-time high of 3.20% for Linux.
That figure is a 0.15% rise in just one month, quite an impressive figure once you consider that for years on end, Steam Linux usage was under or barely over 1%. The launch of the Steam Deck in 2022 naturally increased that figure, but the gaming community seems be rallying around SteamOS derivatives, as the OS family had a 1.9% share in 2023, 3.05% in 2025, and now 3.20% as of this writing.
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The Verge ☛ Linux usage on Steam hits a record high for the second month in a row
After finally passing the 3 percent mark in October, Linux usage on Steam has peaked again in the November Steam Hardware & Software Survey. As of last month, Linux users accounted for 3.2 percent of all Steam users. That pales in comparison to Windows usage (94.79 percent), but it’s still a boost from October and marks a new all-time high for Linux usage on Steam.
Unsurprisingly, Valve’s own Linux distribution is the most popular, with 26.4 percent of Linux users running SteamOS Holo. Arch Linux, Linux Mint, CachyOS, Bazzite, and Ubuntu trailed behind with shares of about 5 to 10 percent each.
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Hot Hardware ☛ GeForce RTX 5070 Cracks Top 10 GPU List In Steam Survey, Linux Rising Too
It was only a matter of time before Blackwell would rank as one of the top 10 GPUs on Steam and it's now official, at least if ignoring the catch-all "AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics" entry. If so, then NVIDIA's mid-range GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card as the 10th most popular GPU on Steam, based on the latest survey results for November 2025.
The GeForce RTX 5070 didn't need a big bump to crack the top 10 list. According to the newest survey results, the Blackwell part saw a 0.35% jump compared to the previous month, putting its share among Steam gamers at 2.23% overall. That's up from 1.88% in October, 1.69% in September, 1.57% in August, and 1.32% in July.
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Linux use hits all-time-high on Steam
Valve has released its November Steam hardware survey, and it is clear that Linux adoption continues to grow among gamers. Now, Linux use has reached an all-time high of 3.2% of Steam users. This month, Linux is the only OS that gained market share on Steam.
While Windows remains PC gaming’s dominant OS, it is clear that many gamers are tired of it. Interest in Valve’s new Steam Machine wouldn’t exist if Windows didn’t have issues. In fact, there are many games that run better on Linux than on Windows, due to SteamOS’ increased efficiency.
Last year, Linux accounted for only 2% of Steam’s user base. In 2026, we expect Linux’s use amongst PC gamers to continue growing, with Valve’s Steam Machine being a driving force.