Back in May the Steam on Linux marketshare returned to passing the 2% threshold and remained above 2% through July. But the August 2024 survey results are out this evening and point to a drop for Linux. The August 2024 numbers show a 0.16% drop for Linux gamers, landing at a 1.92% marketshare. Windows meanwhile rose to 96.78% and macOS dropped a tiny bit to 1.3%.
As we have seen in months past when Linux takes a sizable dip, it’s correlated to a rise in the Simplified Chinese use. In August the Simplified Chinese use further grew and helping out Windows at the cost to the Linux percentage.
I wonder if this also coincides with back-to-school with students getting their new laptops during the summer running Windows, as well as class software requirements requiring Windows. Lots of those students are definitely loading up steam on their laptop for the first time, adding more windows players, but not lowering the number of Linux players. Also everyone gets it - windows bad, Linux and gnu alternatives good, but for uni courses it’s best to save the headache and just run windows for the software that needs it.
I wonder if this also coincides with back-to-school with students getting their new laptops during the summer running Windows, as well as class software requirements requiring Windows. Lots of those students are definitely loading up steam on their laptop for the first time, adding more windows players, but not lowering the number of Linux players. Also everyone gets it - windows bad, Linux and gnu alternatives good, but for uni courses it’s best to save the headache and just run windows for the software that needs it.