How big is gaming in linux?

s804@kbin.social to Linux@kbin.social – 107 points –

Are there hardcore gamers there or is it mostly for coders?

90

Thanks to Valve and Proton gaming on Linux is already pretty viable and it's getting better all the time. I am very happy with how compatible Steam Deck is and what's funnier sometimes stuff that doesn't work on newer Windows versions works perfectly on a Deck. Battle.net Launcher installed as a non-Steam app and set to run with Proton allowing me to install and play Diablo IV just like I would on my PC just blew my mind.

Never thought of installing the launcher and setting it to run with Proton. Do you know if it's possible to play Fortnite on the deck using this method?

If it doesn't run on Linux (via Proton or direct), I don't play it. It has made some things less than fun (because I can run much lower powered hardware on Linux) but I've managed to keep up with the kids and their Windows-only machine including bigger games like Satisfactory and Hollow Knight.

I use Linux as my daily OS, for study and work. I primarily game on it as well!

Every game that I've tried on Linux runs smoother (less 1% lows) than on Wind0ws. I assume it's because of the bloat on win11, but then again I researched as much as possible to clean up and optimize win11. Still runs much better on Linux. I mainly play Apex Legends, and though I don't consider myself good, I was D3 in S15.

The biggest issue is dealing with the games that use Anti-cheat systems that put kernel-hooks on wind0ws, which can't be emulated.

That’s very cool! In general, assuming a game runs well through proton, how’s the gaming performance between Linux and the same hardware on Windows? (You mentioned 1% lows are better, but what about average?)

I’m not super familiar with proton so I would think running in proton has some performance hit; is this not the case?

it really depends on the game. most will be just about the same (in my experience), but some are worse and some are better. It does help to have a lightweight DE/WM.

Linux as an OS is just so much better about getting good performance out of the hardware, and keeping itself out of the way. I've converted a lot of people to Linux over the year in an effort to get better performance on older systems. They couldn't afford to buy a new computer, and usually just wanted to be able to check email and go on the web. Slap Ubuntu on and they were always shocked how much better everything ran, but was still easy to use.

You can check for yourself if the games you want to play work on Linux, just look up "(game name) ProtonDB" and look for a gold or higher for a good gaming experience. Subjectively, 90% of the games I've tried work well. CSGO, Overwatch 2 (through Lutris), Don't Starve, Deep Rock Galactic and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all games I know play well on Linux since I've tried them myself. It's incredible what Valve has done with Proton for game compatibility on Linux.

I used to run a PCI-passthrough/VFIO Windows virtual machine for gaming, but I haven't started it up or used Windows on my own machines in almost a year now.

I got a Steam Deck and it proved to me that Linux gaming was ready. My main beefy desktop now just runs Linux and uses Proton to do it all, and I'm extremely happy with it. I deleted my Windows VM's partition recently. It's run everything I want to play just fine! I play a fair mix of stuff... Indie and AAA, new and old, single-player and multi-player.

Every problem I've had so far is related to my own system or choices, not Steam, Proton, or the game. (eg, had a bad stick of RAM, did an incomplete upgrade, etc.)

CS: GO, Don't Starve, and many others work natively on Linux with no need for Proton. This makes for the best experience.

Valve has certainly given linux a boost with the SteamDeck and all the work they've funded to make it a viable gaming platform. I just hope they release SteamOS for all platforms soon, maybe we'll see an uptick in PC pre-builds with SteamOS as an option instead of just Windows.

Linux gaming is growing a lot, especially in the last couple of years. You can play almost any windows game on Linux, the biggest hang-up right now is anti-cheat. Most anti-cheat made for windows will not like being emulated on Linux, and even if it works a lot of time you will run the risk of being banned.

So bigger multiplayer games, mainly AAA titles, are still lagging behind.

Well the Steam Deck's OS is forked from Arch so.

I play mostly Indie so I couldn't speak for stuff like anti-cheat/graphics but... the types of game I play, for the most part "it just works".
If you're into RPG maker games, they sometimes require workarounds (hint: you can hot-swap the contents of RPG Maker MV/MX/MZ into Linux's native nwjs...)
I think the only games that struggle on my computer are mostly because of GPU (I'm on a laptop) rather than anything else Tbh

Linux is a great choice for gaming!

While there may be some anti cheat games it cant run (at the moment), I've heard that some games can run even better on Linux than on Windows!

Steam deck has grown it a fair bit. Excluding anticheat, most games can be made to work with the assistance of proton See protonDB for specific games, but it's a definite thing.

^ this. I still check protonDB occasionally before a purchase but it's rarely been an issue in the last 6 years. That about as how long I haven't had any windows in the house.

BattleEye and EAC are supported, IF the developers enable it for their games.

I can play whatever I want on Linux, there's so many options that make it work like Lutris, Bottles, Heroic Games Launcher and Steam of course. There are some exceptions though, some games don't work, but that's often a deliberate choice of the studios. Looking at you, Bungie.

Through Steam and Proton, I'm able to play most of the games I'm interested in: Mass Effect, Last of Us, Jedi Fallen Order & Survivor. Steam Deck is built on Linux too.

Proton is huge and is making gaming on Linux actually viable. The Steam Deck also is a huge motivator for devs to make games compatible.

I have been gaming on Linux since 2017, and it is super super viable now. Did you know that over 70% of the top 1000 games on Steam are playable on Linux?

I use Linux exclusively for gaming. Sometimes there's a performance hit or weird bug, but mostly it runs very well, occasionally better than on Windows. I have quite often heard of windows players complaining about older games no longer running properly, and I've often had no problems with these on Linux, for example the original Dead Space.

However there are technologies which are still quite some ways off. Rtaytracing is improving but still a generation behind windows in terms of performance and support. HDR is barely supported anywhere. Variable refresh rate, is supported in some instances, but not universally, e.g. Gnome doesn't support it yet for Wayland. I don't know anything much about VR but would suspect it may not be very well supported yet either.

I've been gaming on Linux primarily for the last ~5 years. I also use Linux professionally (though I am a research scientist, not a programmer). I would say Linux gaming is 95% feasible if you do SP only. If you do MP in addition to SP, it's maybe 70% ish doable? If you do just MP, that drops to like 20%-30%.

Most things "just work" now, especially for SP games. Occasionally you find an old game with a glitch or bug you need to search the web to fix, but it's not bad, similar things happen on Windows.

If you stick to the biggest supported distros (Fedora, Ubuntu) and stick to Steam, and stick to SP, it's basically no different from Windows as far as ease of use and compatibility.

Lots of people in this thread are talking about steam and proton, but what about games on other launchers? How easy is it to setup proton without steam at all? One-click setup or 3 hours of crawling through google results and debugging?

Lutris works pretty well for most other games I've tried. I have Epic working on it, Battle.net, MTG:A, and RSI/Star Citizen. Few issues here or there with any given game but honestly not too bad. Performance is on par with Windows. I dual boot for Fusion360 and CAD so I can do a/b testing.

Ubuntu 22.04/Mate, Threadripper 2950x w/ 64gb ram, 2x2tb NVMe, Radeon RX 6800 XT

@Kaldo

@s804

I haved used the heroic launcher to play games from GOG and the Epic stores without too much fuss. I even got a pirated game to play after I used a windows vm to run the extraction/unpack tool.

Depends on the game, honestly. DOS2? Install & run. The only game I really had trouble was Age of Wonders: Planetfall. AoW 4 works just fine, without any issues. You can also use proton for non-setup games, pick any runner you want in e.g. lutris. Or Heroic Launcher.

It's not nearly as smooth and painless outside of Steam and Proton, but it's still a lot better than it used to be. 3 hours of work is pretty rare.

Heroic and Lutris take some time to get setup up properly, but once they are they usually just work. If they don't, popular games are usually easy to find help with. Older games are also more likely to just work, so for most people I think it's mostly just games with uncooperative anti-cheat that cause major problems. There will be more minor problems than on Windows though, and a few games here and there that just stubbornly refuse to work.

I would try adding the game to Steam and using Proton that way

(In the Steam client) Games > Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library > (Add the executable) > Select the game in your library > Properties > Compatibility > Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool > Select your preferred Proton version

Granted, I've only tried this with one game, but it worked like magic. Your mileage may vary.

I wouldn't call myself a hardcore gamer. Only play on weekends and almost exclusively SP games. But so far experience is great (Pop OS, NVIDIA GPU, medium tier gaming laptop). Steam games are mostly playable without serious issues (adding some launch parameters or choosing certain Proton version might be advisable for certain games). Emulation also works nice (tried PPSSPP, RPCS3, Yuzu, Cemu). I would say that gaming on Linux is fine, unless you really need to play one of the not fully supported titles (especially ones with those pesky anti-cheats). Couldn't care less about RTX or HDR (would not work well even on Windows with my rig).

I'm playing on Linux for 4 and a half years already now. I am a programmer, too, but my home system is used mostly for games.

With Proton most games run with no issues and just as fast as on Windows. Those that don't are because of anticheat, weird launchers or invasive DRM. I still have a Windows partition for those games and Windows only tools but haven't used it in months.

At this point you can use linux or windows without having to switch around except for more specific applications (things not directly supported through proton can still be run through it by just adding to steam as a non-steam app)

You may not find as many Linux users, but it'd be more a numbers game than anything. The games are definitely there now.

It's been harsh in the past, you just had to sometimes accept lower framerates/performance on the same hardware. These last few years, thanks to Vulkan and DXVK, it's been a blast though. Loving Lutris as my main launcher too.

I switched near Windows 11 release. I went with Ubuntu hirsute hippo. I had an Nividia card and a steam account and was shocked at how well my games were running. And it has gotten better and better.

Steam is doing great with pleasing gamers.

My path to Linux was similar to yours, except I dealt with Windows 11 for about 6 months before I finally formatted it and replaced it with Pop!_OS in a 1am rage after it completely fucked up for the 87th time that day.

I was shocked to discover that it was even easier to deal with than Windows 11. The last time I used Linux was a decade ago and it was nowhere near as plug-and-play as it is now. Games worked seamlessly. It completely blew me away.

Check out the steam hardware survey: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey

1.47% of steam users

Does that include Steam Deck users? Steam OS is based on Linux, but I don't see it listed on the hardware survey under the Linux category.

It's probably counted as "Arch Linux" since it's what the Steam OS is based on.

I don't know where you draw the line for hardcore gamer but I play a lot of games and so does my friend, who is nontechnical and also plays on linux, and we both have very few issues and love the experience more than Windows. It really depends on what games you wanna play but there are very few games that aren't working OOTB. Protondb is a good site that I'm sure other people will link but if you're looking to switch I recommend taking a look at this site for the major games that will/won't work: https://areweanticheatyet.com/

I was putting some old donated computers into a school in the Dominican Republic and they had old Windows versions and I could not update without spending some cash. So I installed Ubuntu Linux on them. It was GREAT! So pretty soon I upgraded my own PC and now I have been using Linux for a decade. The range of games is reduced - some Windows games just won't work. But I am not a "coder" and not really a hardcore gamer either - I do some engineering and some technical writing, surf internet, and watch videos. I have no idea why anyone still uses Windows except for the fact that it came on their PC when they bought it (and it cost them $200 for the privilege!).

Ease of use is such a sad argument as well. Linux Mint or Ubuntu would be more than enough for most Windows use cases and are probably more intuitive. Yes, differently, but definitely more intuitive.

I recommend using an AMD CPU and GPU, but otherwise you can just assume a game works and it will most of the time. If it doesn't, there might be some quick fixes, and if not then it's an unlucky one.

See ProtonDB.

LTT did a video last year where they tried to go full Linux for their gaming setups. Turns out it's doable, but has some pretty glaring complications if you deviate from the common branch of what people do. USB 3.2.2 remote gaming is unsupported, and they had some issues I can't recall. They basically ended on "Yes you can game, but you're gonna have to tinker a lot to get it working right, unless you're just using steam on a standard PC".

One thing worth mentioning is at the time he did it, the Steam Deck and Steam's OS hadn't released yet, which at the very least try to keep a baseline more directly aimed at gaming.

Not to say all the issues Linus had are fixed there, but it's a bit easier.

ProtonDB and using a combo with Lutris and Steam. And of course some third party Proton like Proton GE to make games run smooth. Funny enough, the games I found hardest to run been the Neptunia (example Cyberdimension) games. I guess no one really cares about them.

It's quite viable at the moment, and with Wine, you can run many Windows programs, including games. Sometimes it even runs some old games much better than current Windows versions.

If the developers don't use DirectX for 3D API, then it's quite easy to port. At least Windows still has OpenGL and Vulkan, unlike MacOS. (Why did they axed those in favor of Metal?)

Fun fact, MoltenVK enables running Vulkan on macOS. It does so by forwarding Vulkan calls into Metal. There's a little bit of extra work involved in setting up the Vulkan instance under the hood, but it's otherwise easy to forget it's running on top of Metal. Granted, it would have been nice if Apple had just included native support for Vulkan out of the box.

I’ve been gaming on Linux since Proton first launched. It was good back then, and at this point I can play just about everything in my Steam library (nearly 1000 games). From indies to racing sims to triple a games. It’s great.

Anti-cheat is still hit or miss, but I don’t really play any multiplayer games, so that doesn’t affect me luckily.

I know Steam (Valve) have metrics on it that probably give a good idea of how Linux fares in the PC market for gaming. Probably not entirely accurate but maybe accurate enough. I know it's the best I've ever seen though.

I use it for work, my personal desktop, and naturally my Steam Deck. It's far from being the majority but it is becoming increasingly common thanks to Valve.

Really, Valve pushing proton and making the steam deck OS an arch derivative have vastly pushed the stability of Linux gaming and I can't thank them enough for it

I've clocked over 660 hours in Apex Legends. recently finished Psychonauts 2. currently playing Valheim with some friends and Witcher 2 on my own. all of that exclusively on Linux.

I hate to say it but I haven’t had much luck gaming on Linux. Long time Linux user (bounce between Ubuntu and arch type distro since before 2008).

I haven’t had much luck getting may games working at all on Linux (fallout, Skyrim) or running well (City Skylines, KSP). I’ve followed plenty of guides but have limited luck, so not sure if it’s my aging CPU/GPU or what.

I would like nothing more than to use Linux as my only OS but I have limited time to game (less than 4-5 hours / month), so I’m stuck with windows since I can still quickly fire up games there.

You are using Proton I assume? I haven't gotten around to installing Linux desktop so I can't speak for much outside of my steam deck. But I haven't had any issues playing games other than not being powerful enough for most games on high settings. Even "not verified" titles usually run just fine and if they don't, like Recetear having audio issues, I just had to find a different proton version or something. Games with native support obviously worked great. I have heard that GeForce cards are a crapshoot on Linux though.

I've been gaming on Linux for years and steam has made it super easy. I used to deal with wine but now the process is exactly the same as any other OS (assuming you're using steam). If you want to play non steam games you probably want to have some knowledge about how Linux works

I play games that are available on Linux via Steam. Not as hardcore as I used to be, though.

I gather it's been doable for quite a while now, but the Steam Deck/SteamOS has given the Proton compatibility layer a huge boost in the last year and a half.

I fully switched to Linux ~3 years ago and at the beginning I was worrying about compatibility, but nowadays I don't really have to think about it anymore. I play AA games almost daily with both Steam and Heroic. Like others have mentioned, there are some games that doesn't work because of anti-cheats, but I think there are only a handful of those anymore.

Oh yes, there are gamers. I play Apex, Titanfall 2, Hunt Showdown. Sometimes Overwatch.

Very few games have not worked at all. R6Siege is a popular stickler that still doesn't work (even though it could if the devs let it, it starts up and runs training just fine).

I completely switched to Linux in 2015. I'd definitely call myself a gamer. I don't buy AAA games at release too often, but I sometimes do. I play games for several hours a week. So yeah, probably that makes me a gamer. Nowadays gaming on Linux works great 80-90% of the time. Proton on Steam has massively improved the experience. The only stuff that still regularly causes problems are anti-cheat systems for some multiplayer games. Otherwise gaming on Linux feels almost the same as on Windows.

I do a bit of coding but I mostly use my pc to game tbh hahaha, Deep rock Galactic is what I'm obsessed with right now

Seems pretty great to me. Yes, it is and will probably always be at least a bit worse than on windows, but definitely not enough to actually use windows. I'm really happy with the way it's going. The enjoyment linux brings for me FAR outweighs the cons. That is not gonna be the case for everyone and that's fine too.

the only reason I have windows on my desktop is because of valorant anticheat

btw how do you change your profile pic?

I've clocked well over 100 hours on Snowrunner in Steam Games, and now started Red Dead Redemption 2. I mainly play simulators, and many of the fames are actually Windows games, but Steam with Proton seems to be handling them just fine.

I'm no hardcore gamer but game a lot.
I'm running Nobara KDE, almost any games I throw at it work with no tinkering. Just this afternoon I installed Lies of P demo from Steam, it worked OTT with zero glitch. I have a SSD with Win11 I haven't run in months lol.

I used to dual boot Linux & Windows, but these days, gaming on Linux works just fine. Granted, I don't play any hardcore multiplayer games that might have iffy anticheat or anything, but even modern games work with little to no issue.

I am both. And I have to say while many games with steam are download and play depending on your system os and gpu you will have various degrees of tinkering in order to get stuff running.

You either have to accept that you can't play every game or spend a lot of time getting them to work.

And multiplayer anti cheat games are very few that work.

I dualboot. Use windows only for gaming though. Luckily most of my favorite games run on Linux natively (Like ONI and CK3).

I play on linux smfrom 5 years more or less, as it is my daily driver. I have a laptop with nvidia gpu and woth OopOS I have no problem. Stema for steam games, heroic for epic and gog and lutris for all the other. I play exclusively single player, if a need some multiplayer games I have a dual bot, but I used it like 2 times in 5 years. For now the only game that gave me a lot of truble was Shadow of the Tomb Raider from Epic. I had to use "alternative way" for having it to start.