Linux back over 4% in the July 2026 Steam Survey | GamingOnLinux
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Linux back over 4% in the July 2026 Steam Survey
2 Aug 2026 at 8:40 am UTC | Last updated: 2 Aug 2026 at 12:36 pm UTC
By Liam Squires-Hand<br>4 comments
The Steam Hardware & Software Survey for July 2026 is out now and going by the current data, Linux has managed to jump back just over 4%.
Here's the current overall operating system share:
Windows - 93.67%
Linux - 4.01%
macOS - 2.32%
Oddly, some of the comparisons look like they're against May's numbers not June, so we may end up seeing some corrections from Valve. We'll keep an eye on it.
The usual snapshot from our dedicated Steam Tracker page:
And the most popular Linux distributions for July 2026:
SteamOS Holo 64 bit 22.24% -0.59%
CachyOS 64 bit 14.31% +0.28%
Arch Linux 64 bit 8.29% -0.57%
Linux Mint 22.3 64 bit 8.12% +0.22%
Bazzite 64 bit 7.73% +0.45%
Freedesktop SDK 25.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 5.37% +0.01%
Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) 64 bit 2.92% +0.40%
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS 64 bit 2.92% +0.35%
Ubuntu Core 24 64 bit 2.88% -0.20%
Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS 64 bit 2.78% +0.05%
Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) 64 bit 1.99% +0.03%
EndeavourOS Linux 64 bit 1.69% -0.08%
Fedora Linux 44 (Workstation Edition) 64 bit 1.66% +0.13%
Nobara Linux 43 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) 64 bit 1.64% -0.53%
Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS 64 bit 1.53% +0.01%
Other 13.91% +0.02%
The survey shows that 1920 x 1080 is still the top resolution, by quite a wide margin too at 51.10%. The next most popular being 2560 x 1440 at 21.46%. We're also seeing 32 GB RAM (36.93%) closing in on 16 GB (40.97%).
🌐 External Sources: store.steampowered.com<br>Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Survey, Survey Results, Valve
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About the author - Liam Squires-Hand
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can follow me personally on Mastodon [External Link] .<br>See more from me
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4 comments
CatKiller 9 hours ago
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With the five-month moving average, it looks like this.
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We can clean that up by excluding the months with language spikes, and correcting the months that had a Linux overcount.
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The timing and magnitudes of the underlying signals mean that there are five distinct periods of growth.
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Axel Ekholm 3 hours ago
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Hoping for 5 % before 2027 and 10 % before 2029 😀
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PlayingOnLinuxphone 2 hours ago
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Quoting: Axel Ekholm Hoping for 5 % before 2027 and 10 % before 2029 😀
With the data from Catkiller and the 5ths growth-range, 10% seems unlikely in that time span. It would require to continue the 4ths line of growth. I had some fear that the growth slows down some months after W10EOL#1, but hopped for that not being the case. Win10EOL#2 is also delayed, so it removes the pressure for people to handle, which may also has a negative impact on the trend. But I am not afraid that the overall trend will not continue, especially with long-term view on Europe.
Last edited by PlayingOnLinuxphone on 2 Aug 2026 at 3:53 pm UTC
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Linuxwarper 46 minutes ago
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Couple things that happened (or going to happen?), that affected market share..
Microsoft subisidized/partnered hanhelds, most notably Asus later their Xbox branded version. Affected Steam Deck sales
Microsoft and other companies AI corruption just choking out all PC sales. In contrast to many other Valve's Deck and Machine were compelling propositions, Machine was set to be 750$. Both hardware have been utterly diminished to point of people not wanting them at current/increased prices
Rumour about Microsoft pulling out of Steam. While...