Linux Share of Steam Users Rises to 3.95%
Valve's October 2026 survey shows Windows losing ground on Steam while Linux and macOS gain, a measured shift in the installed base.
Updated on Nov. 2, 2026 in Computers
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Valve's Steam Hardware & Software Survey for October 2026, published November 2, shows Windows at 93.70% of Steam users, down 1.33 percentage points, while Linux rose to 3.95%, up 0.90 points. macOS stands at 2.35%, up 0.43 points. These are survey measurements of an installed base, not a product or capability launch.
Why it matters
Linux's gain on Steam is one of the clearest measured signals of desktop gaming platform shift, and it tracks the growing practical viability of Linux-based gaming. The data reflects where players' machines actually run, which matters to hardware and software developers deciding where to invest.
The figures come from Valve's own opt-in hardware and software survey of Steam users, reported as percentage shares with changes from the prior period. The survey does not explain the cause of the movement between platforms.
The players
Valve
Valve operates the Steam platform and its hardware and software survey, and is known for the Steam Deck handheld running SteamOS, a Linux-based system.
The details
The survey measures which operating systems and Linux distributions people run on their machines when they use Steam, which Valve compiles and publishes as percentage shares. Among Linux users on Steam, CachyOS 64 bit leads at 16.39%, followed by SteamOS Holo 64 bit at 13.89% and Arch Linux 64 bit at 8.92%. SteamOS appears twice in the results, once as Holo and once as a separate entry.
Timeline
October 2026 is the period the survey measures.
Valve published the results on November 2, 2026.
The Tech Race
Valve's SteamOS appears as the second most common Linux distribution in the survey, behind CachyOS, which places Valve's own platform in the middle of the Linux gaming share. The survey does not compare this share to rival gaming platforms, so the competitive position is limited to the Steam ecosystem itself.
Players who run Linux on Steam gain a larger and more visible set of distributions to choose from, with CachyOS, SteamOS and Arch leading the list. The survey does not indicate any change in availability or compatibility for specific games.
The takeaway
The survey shows Linux's share of Steam users continuing to grow while Windows declines, a trend that the next Valve survey will either confirm or reverse. Watch the November 2026 Steam Hardware & Software Survey to see whether Linux's 3.95% share holds its gain.
Further reading
For broader context on how personal computing platforms are changing, explore our Computers coverage.
Source note: This article includes information reported by GamingOnLinux.
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