Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Apr 03, 2026,
updated Apr 15, 2026

Quoting: Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time | GamingOnLinux —

After rubbing away the sleep from my eyes in disbelief, Valve have updated the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for March 2026 showing explosive Linux growth.

For the first time, Linux has smashed through 5% hitting yet another all-time high. Showing that all of Valve's work to improve Linux gaming thanks to Proton, SteamOS and the Steam Deck have certainly turned some heads. This is after last month saw a downwards swing due to a rise in Simplified Chinese so this may be things going back to where they would be normally.

Read on

Also:

• Steam survey shows Linux hitting an all-time high with gamers - Digital Trends

  Linux gaming has just hit a major milestone. Valve’s March 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows Linux at 5.33%, which is the highest share it has ever recorded on Steam.

  In the meantime, Windows fell to 92.33%, while macOS came in at 2.35%. This means that Linux is now comfortably ahead of MacOS.

Later coverage:

• Linux use hits an all-time-high on Steam, passing 5% user share

  hile 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. There’s a reason why Microsoft is scrambling to fix Windows and boost its performance.

  In 2024, 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. Even without Valve’s Steam Machine, Linux use is growing thanks to the success of Bazzite and other gaming-focused distributions.

3 more pieces:

• Steam Survey: Linux climbs to 5.33%, more than double macOS

  Valve’s March 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey puts Linux at 5.33% of surveyed users, up 3.10 percentage points month over month. That is the first time Linux has moved above the 5% mark in Valve’s published survey data. Windows fell to 92.33%, while macOS rose to 2.35%.

• Steam on Linux Surpasses 5% Market Share: What It Means

  Linux has crossed the 5% market share threshold on Steam, marking the most significant milestone the platform has reached in PC gaming history. It is a number that would have seemed implausible just a few years ago — and it carries real implications for developers, players, and the future of platform diversity on PC.

  The figure comes from Valve’s Steam Hardware & Software Survey, which tracks the operating systems and hardware configurations of active Steam users. According to data reported by Phoronix, Linux’s share on Steam has now surpassed 5%, a threshold that cements the platform’s place as a genuine — if still minority — force in PC gaming.

• Linux installs jump to over 5% of gamers on the latest Steam Hardware Survey while the RTX 5070 reverts to the norm

  Steam Hardware Surveys come with copious caveats, including some courtesy of Valve itself. But the latest results for March are still intriguing, including a big jump in the proportions of gamers running Linux and a regression to the mean for the survey's GPU stats.

  First up, that Linux result. According to March survey figures, the proportion of gamers on Steam running Linux increased from 2.13% in February to 5.33% in March.

One more:

• Linux Installations Rise to 5% in Latest Steam Hardware Survey, RTX 5070 Falls Back

  The latest Steam hardware survey has shown a very interesting picture, with strong growth in Linux installations among gamers. The share of users using Linux rose from 2.13% in February to 5.33% in March. This is a significant jump, putting the open-source operating system well ahead of macOS, which stands at 2.35%, although it still remains far behind Windows, which continues to dominate with 92.33%, despite a drop of 4.28%.

  Within the Linux ecosystem, Arch Linux leads the ranking with 0.34%, followed by Linux Mint 22.3 at 0.27%. This result is easy to explain, as SteamOS 3, the system used by Steam Deck, is based on Arch Linux, which has helped increase its use.

• March Steam survey: Intel Arc finally breaks into the charts as AMD and Linux reach record shares

  Not for the first time, the Steam survey has returned to some semblance of normality following a bizarre month. That means we have a new top GPU, AMD has reached yet another record CPU share, and Intel Arc has finally broken into the main chart.

  February was one of those weird months where the Steam survey saw massive changes from the status quo: the RTX 5070 became the top GPU, AMD lost CPU share, Windows 11 was down 10%, and Chinese became the most common language among participants.

XDA:

• Linux's Steam market share just broke a new record, and it's leaving macOS in the dust

  Near the start of 2026, we began seeing signs that this year may be the year of gaming on Linux. Sure, the eternal quest to find the year of Linux period may not come to an end this year (or five), but I feel pretty confident that, at the very least, gamers will consider the FOSS distros worth trying.

PC Gamer:

• 43% of you have, or will be switching to gaming on Linux this year, but more surprising than that over a quarter of you actually don't mind Windows | PC Gamer

  Linux is something that has been on our minds, and honestly on our gaming PCs quite extensively over the past few months. Since Valve dropped it into the Steam Deck, and Proton became the way forward for gaming on Linux distros the world over, there has been increased interest in the open source operating system. Is it a viable alternative to Windows, can it actually cope with gaming on high-end hardware, will you be stuck copy and pasting random code into a terminal from here until the end of time?

  Yes, yes, and probably.

3 more:

• PC Mag ☛ Windows Use Among Gamers Falls, Linux Tops 5% For the First Time

  For the first time, Windows use among gamers has fallen below 93% in the Steam Hardware survey while Linux use topped 5%.

• KitGuru ☛ SteamOS propels Linux to record 5.33% share in latest Steam Survey

  The latest Steam Hardware and Software Survey results for March 2026 show Linux crossing the 5% market share threshold for the first time in the platform's history. According to the data, Linux-based systems jumped to 5.33% of the total user base, a massive 3.10% increase over the previous month.

• WCCF Tech ☛ Latest Steam Hardware Survey Shows A Spike In 16 GB System RAM Share; Linux Surpasses 5% Share For The First Time

  Several things have changed, and there have been some major fluctuations on both the hardware and OS levels. Steam Hardware Survey March 2026 Reveals Linux Suddenly Spiked to Over 5%; 16 GB System RAM is Now More Popular Than 32 GB

  The Steam Hardware Survey data for March 2026 is out, and there have been major changes in shares on both hardware and OS levels. The last survey showed a huge spike in shares for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs, which was caused by the Chinese New Year. The reason was obvious when we checked the language share in February. However, the latest data shows things have stabilized, but there have been some major changes.

One more:

• Windows just saw a dramatic drop in OS market share on Steam as gamers move to Linux

  inux has surpassed 5% market share among Steam PC gamers, driven by SteamOS and other gaming-focused distros, while Windows holds over 90%. Windows 11 leads but some gamers are shifting away from Windows to Linux, boosted by SteamOS and growing industry support for Linux gaming.

  The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for March 2026 are now available, and as we've gone over the big movements in the GPU space, there is one other notable shift worth digging into. And it arrives in the OS space, with Linux crossing the 5% market share barrier for the first time. According to the results, 5.33% of Steam gamers on PC are playing on Linux, with SteamOS being the number one distro.

2 more:

• Steam on Linux Surpasses 5% Market Share in the Latest Survey Update | TechPowerUp

  As we enter a new month, Steam's Hardware and Software Survey data has been processed, providing us with a clearer view of the overall gaming market that uses Steam platform. Today, the most notable change in the Steam Survey is the increase in Linux gamers, who have moved from their historically low single-digit market share to mid-single digits. As of March, Linux-based operating systems were running Steam on 5.33% of all polled systems. This represents an impressive 3.10% increase over February's data, which showed a dip in Linux market share from January's 3.5%. Fortunately, the numbers have now been revised upwards, marking a significant improvement for the community that has been steadily implementing improvements and making Linux-based gaming more accessible to everyone.

• Linux continues its upward trend: Operating system hits new high in Steam survey | igor´sLAB

  For many years, Windows has been considered the dominant operating system, particularly in the gaming sector, where it has long been the top choice for most users. However, this dominance seems to be gradually waning. According to Steam’s latest hardware survey, the share of Windows users has declined, while at the same time more and more users are switching to Linux.

PC Gamer:

• Historical Steam survey data suggests the Big Switch from Windows to Linux has yet to happen | PC Gamer

  Though Microsoft claims it's actively working towards rebuilding user goodwill, many PC gamers are calling time on Windows. It helps that Linux is the best it's ever been for gaming, thanks to dedicated distros such as Bazzite. However, historic Steam survey results suggest the Big Switch is a ways off yet.

  Redditor xVarrick compared Steam Hardware & Software Survey results from March 2024, March 2025, and March 2026. Their resulting bar graph simplifies the data by combining all OS versions and distros under unified banners, but still makes it pretty clear that the vast majority of Steam users have continued to stick with Windows; 92.33% of Steam's user base are using some version of Windows as of March 2026.

  That said the Windows user base did shrink overall by 3.77% between March 2025 and March 2026. While that's not exactly eye-watering stuff, a correlational increase of 0.77% can be seen in macOS users. As you may already suspect, Linux enjoyed the greatest uptick, with an increase of 3% bringing it to a total 5.33% slice of the pie.