Valve and its SteamOS operating system have already achieved what many tech giants—including Apple—have struggled to do for decades: challenge Windows’ dominance in PC gaming.
According to Valve’s own Steam Hardware Survey, Microsoft remains the overwhelming leader, with over 92% of PCs running some version of Windows. Yet, this figure has declined over time:
- Five years ago: Just over 96%
- Ten years ago: Just under 96%
- Fifteen years ago: 96%
Going back further, Steam originally ran exclusively on Windows, a testament to Microsoft’s long-standing dominance in the gaming ecosystem.
Between April 2021 and today, Linux’s share on Steam has surged from under 1% to over 5%. While this remains a small fraction, it marks the most significant growth in Linux adoption on the platform in years. Notably, SteamOS itself isn’t broken out in these statistics, but its base distribution, Arch Linux, accounts for roughly 0.33% of that 5%+ share.
Valve’s success stems from a different approach: enabling Windows games to run on Linux rather than pushing developers to create native Linux ports. This organic, word-of-mouth-driven strategy contrasts sharply with Valve’s earlier attempts in the early 2010s, when it tried—and failed—to directly compete with Windows.
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