Looking at the operating system used by most Steam users, one thing remains unchanged: Windows still holds over 90% of the market share. But further down the list, other things stand out: Linux users already make up more than 5%What is striking is that a round number is exceeded, the first one that exists before 10, although 10% would be an absolute confirmation.
It is certainly striking that, although he remains without rival, Windows has lost 4.28% of market share, which made its dominance even more insulting. Where have those users gone? Since the last time figures were released, Linux has grown by 3.10%, so not all of us are Linux users. The other 1.19% has been "gobbled up" by macOS. And since we've brought Apple's desktop system into the equation, it's worth noting that Linux users are more than double the number of Apple system users (2.35%).
Linux reaches its highest point, according to Steam
The Linux market is dominated by Arch Linux and Ubuntu, or rather, distributions based on them. It's worth noting that SteamOS and CachyOS are also based on Arch.
I don't know if the Linux desktop meme or joke of the year is ever-present, but all signs point to our numbers growing. During the pandemic, we surpassed 4%, but that percentage dropped again when things returned to normal. In fact, we fell back to approximately 2%.
Already in the games, Last November 2025 we were at just over 3%, a 3% that also We had surpassed it on the desktop in 2023Out of curiosity, I looked in Statcounter and we're still at that 3% in the general desktop.
So it seems that gaming on Linux is what's gaining interest. There could be many reasons, but a couple of them would be performance and moving away from Microsoft, which keeps adding bloatware and other unpopular features to its operating system. And in 2026, we should see even more users, since the Steam Machine is expected to arrive.