I already pointed out multiple times, that Steam survey is useless for evaluating Linux gaming market. Why would Steam even need a survey? They have full stats available, but they aren't public.
And what's important is sales potential, which you can evaluate by sales percentages per OS for cross platform games. Steam doesn't publish such numbers. Humble Bundle does though.
I already pointed out multiple times, that Steam survey is useless for evaluating Linux gaming market. Why would Steam even need a survey? They have full stats available, but they aren't public.
I wouldn't be surprised if a survey actually overestimated the number of Linux users. Using Linux for gaming is a choice and usually a more difficult path than gaming on Windows. So, Linux users are likely move vocal about their use of Linux, for various reasons: (1) it's often a principled choice; (2) by showing that a significant chunk uses Linux, more gaming studios will target Linux.
tl;dr: it would be nice if Valve released actual stats, but I think the survey is a good ballpark figure. In other words, the market is pretty much non-existent.
> usually a more difficult path than gaming on Windows
Just to speak against this notion (which absolutely used to be true, no contest there): anecdotally, I don't find that to be true anymore, at least using Steam.
It works really smoothly for me, just as on Windows. In fact I'm just about ready to drop Windows as a gaming plaform. Maybe some titles aren't available for Linux, but I still have enough to fall back on.
Perhaps by "difficult" here OP means "access to games" and not just setup.
If you choose to game on Linux, you are intentionally restricting the number of games you can play. And for some people that's obviously ok, but for most (as stats show), it's not ok.
I wouldn't worry about total number of Steam users or their percentages. It's pretty irrelevant. What's more important, is potential of sales per OS. So for all intents and purposes, that survey is pretty useless. But numbers from HB are actually something you can evaluate.
> by showing that a significant chunk uses Linux, more gaming studios will target Linux.
You're being pretty confrontational here, and I don't think it's necessary..
No matter which way you slice it, the Linux gaming community is tiny when compared to Windows and consoles. Sure, it's growing, and there are more and more games coming to the OS, and more choices = better of course.
But we are a long way from Linux being a platform that matters in the overall computer gaming world.
I'm not confrontational. I just prefer when those Steam numbers aren't used like some absolute indicator of some situation, and they often are. They aren't demonstrating sales potential, so developers shouldn't use them for evaluating viability of Linux releases.
Making statements like "if you paid attention" or calling people "desperate" is confrontational language, or at best unnecessarily harsh.
Linux gaming is obviously a subject that you hold dear - you've jumped in multiple times on almost every single top thread in this discussion - and that's ok, but ease off a bit..
Let your points stand on their own merit, you don't need to call people out because they're not as deeply informed on the subject matter as you are, or because they don't agree with your perspective.
Statistics are often twisted around or taken out of context to make an argument, which is wrong. So don't get upset if that is dismissed to make conversation fact based, not speculation based. And this particular stats example is waved around often for that incorrect argumentation.
Because they need permission from the user to collect the data.
Even if the data is undercounting Linux (maybe Linux games are less likely to take the survey) the trend is consistently down for ~4 years now. So you might make a case that the size is bigger than the survey shows, but not that it is growing.
Trend down doesn't mean the number of Linux gamers is decreasing. Even if you assume the survey is correct and representative, it can simply mean the number of Windows gamers on Steam is increasing faster. Besides, Linux gamers are less likely to use Steam than Windows ones (DRM-free preference).
From DRM-free stores, GOG unfortunately don't publish any stats, and stats from HB show pretty good Linux percentage.
I agree, it only means the share is shrinking, not the absolute numbers. Given the large overall Steam growth rate, it is certain the absolute number has increased. Nonetheless, it isn't a great story for Linux gaming.
I don't see how it's any story really. Steam grew. So? What's more relevant, is how much Linux gaming has grown. And it has quite a bit in the last several years.
When you purchase from Humble Bundle, they don't know what platform you would use to play. All they know is what platform you're buying from.
People who use their Android phones to purchase and pay Humble Bundle, get classified under "Linux". You can see big Linux platform numbers even for bundles that don't have a single Linux game.
Steam's survey reads the platform - the user has almost no role in actually filling it out beyond saying 'yes, you can collect this data'. This makes it significantly better than requiring each and every user to act to specify their platform.
And what's important is sales potential, which you can evaluate by sales percentages per OS for cross platform games. Steam doesn't publish such numbers. Humble Bundle does though.