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Gamers Are Choosing Linux Over SteamOS — And the Trend Is Growing

Gamers Are Choosing Linux Over SteamOS — And the Trend Is Growing

The latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey for May 2025 shows that while Windows 11 continues to gain traction among gamers (now at 58.3% ), and Linux is seeing a steady rise in adoption (2.69% , up from 2.27% last year), something interesting is happening within the Linux gaming community SteamOS usage is dropping sharply .

Valve’s custom OS, SteamOS Holo (64-bit) — which powers the Steam Deck — now accounts for just 30.95% of all Linux users on Steam , down from 33.78% last month and a high of 45.34% exactly one year ago. This puts it near its lowest level since early 2023, despite growing overall interest in Linux-based gaming.

This decline suggests that more Linux users are turning to alternative distributions like Arch Linux (now at 10.09% ) and Linux Mint 22.1 (7.76% ) instead of sticking with SteamOS.

Interestingly, while Intel CPUs still lead in the broader PC market (59.69% ), AMD processors dominate among Linux gamers , holding a strong 68.77% share .

Although Valve doesn’t keep an official archive of past surveys, data preserved by the Wayback Machine confirms this downward trend for SteamOS — raising questions about its long-term role in the future of Linux gaming.

🔗 View the full Steam Survey here

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