Exactly a month ago, we published Steam's hardware and software survey results for January with a lot of excitement. Many considered it as a one off event and predicted that Ubuntu and Linux won't be able to sustain that kind of momentum. Well, February's survey results are out and the percentage share of Linux on Steam has almost doubled again! From 1.12% to 2.02% to be precise, without factoring in the "others" category.
Linux Gaming is on the Rise
If you think that 2.02% share on Steam is not significant enough, consider this fact. It took nearly 3 years for Mac to reach its current 3.07% share on Steam. And Linux is closing in on Mac within just a few months of actual existence! There is one other interesting tid-bit. Linux Mint Nadia has made it to the official list with a 0.17% share on Steam. "Linux 64 bit" is another new entrant. It was all but an Ubuntu only affair last month. With the inclusion of this generic sounding "Linux 64 bit" entry, I wonder what the "Other" category constitute of? Anyway, here's the quick drill down of percentage share of OSes:
- Windows 7: 69.31%
- Windows 8: 9.63%
- Windows XP: 9.33%
- Mac OS: 3.07%
- Ubuntu: 1.71%
- Linux Mint: 0.17%
- Linux 64 bit: 0.14%
[Further analysis: Steam hardware and software survey results for Feb 2013]