Valve's Steam Survey for October 2026 reports Linux use at 3.95%, an increase of 0.05% from the prior month. The result follows Valve's revision of September's figure to 3.9%.
Valve originally reported Linux at 3.05% for September, a 0.85% decline from August. That reading was closely associated with a strong shift in Simplified Chinese use; according to the report, when that happens in the Steam Survey, Microsoft Windows typically sees large upward swings against Linux. Valve's revised September number and the October figure put Linux back near 4%.
On the same survey, macOS is at 2.35% and Windows at 93.7%. In October 2025, Steam on Linux cracked 3%, making the October 2026 reading a higher level for Linux gaming use on the platform.
Among Linux distributions, Arch Linux-based CachyOS remains the most popular at 16.3%, ahead of SteamOS at 13.89% in second place.
AMD CPU use by Linux gamers remains at just under 70%. The report notes this is driven in part by the Steam Deck and Steam Machine using custom AMD SoCs.
The full October Steam Survey results are available at SteamPowered.com.
Sources: Phoronix.