The only problem with such statistics are, that a) these are Steam games, which do not include all Windows games such as Fortnite, and b) most AAA multiplayer games that are very popular are not playable on Linux. So 90% of games does not equate to 90% of players. Because for most players in example it does not matter the 20% games on Steam with 1 or 2 players at most (just figuratively speaking). This article leans towards Steam statistics and ignores Fortnite, League of Legends, Roblox, Valorant and even on Steam itself GTA Online, PUBG, Call of Duty games (online part), Battlefield games (online part) and so on.

I am a die hard Linux user and gamer since 2008, but I am not someone pretending that 90% of Steam games playable on Linux is as impressive as the the statistics sound. It is important to tell the entire truth, so people switch based on correct and full information and not on a wishful thinking.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yea I tried to switch half a year ago, and 90% of the games I play were launchable, but not playable because of anti-cheats and stuff. I don't give half a shit about the roughly bajillion assetflips on steam are playable on Linux, I care about the big things, that I play with friends.

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not a big online gamer, so I don't really have to mess much with anti cheat stuff. But I wonder if any of the games you want to work will work in a windows VM with a GPU passthrough. You get basically native performance that way, but I think some anti-cheat stuff will still throw a fit even when trying to hide the fact that its running in a VM, so it's not guaranteed to work for 100% of games.

[–] magikmw@piefed.social 1 points 16 hours ago

That's what my gaming pc was for a good while.

[–] omgboom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 day ago

Yeah, also "playable on Linux" doesn't mean you aren't going to have to fiddle with things for a few hours to make it work occasionally.

[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree that for you it doesn't make sense, but outside of the "competitive" FPS genre compatibility covers most everything else, minus things with crazy kernel level DRM rootkits. But you really shouldn't be playing those on Windows either IMHO. And if more people didn't support them on Windows devs might be forced to use compatible anti-cheat that would benefit gamers on all platforms.

I'm also a casual gamer that will just move onto something else in my backlog if a dev breaks proton compatibility.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I agree that for you it doesn’t make sense

What do you mean it doesn't make sense for me??? What exactly doesn't make sense to me in your opinion. I am stating facts and we should not hide them when recommending or showing statistics. It is disingenuous titles like these that will let people try once and forget forever.

Everyone should decide themselves it the move / change makes sense. But we need to provide the facts and information. This article fails to do so.

[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I meant changing to Linux doesn't make sense for you if the games you play have 0% compatibility on Linux. I was agreeing with you! I guess I could have worded that better, sorry about that.

The big issue is I think a large percentage of that group of gamers would love to drop the overhead of Windows but devs are making games designed around Windows lock-in because that is where the user base is. It's like a circular scenario where unless one of them is willing to break the circle it's going to continue for the foreseeable future.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 1 points 7 hours ago

Oh I see, yes that's a misunderstanding here. I was just confused. :D

As for the second point of Windows lock-in, this is no longer the real issue thanks to the integrated efforts of Proton. Developers don't even need to build a Linux version of the game. It really mostly comes down to the anti cheat, which doesn't work on Linux the same way as Windows. There are anti cheat systems that work on Linux, but they are not as effective, because it does not have the same Kernel privileges as on Windows.

[–] javasux@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's kinda like how "90% of species in the world are insects".

Don't mind the mammals, they're a minority. Humans? Couldn't be that influential.

[–] GottaHaveFaith@fedia.io 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Insect can easily survive without humans

[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 1 points 1 day ago

I think the point is that they outnumber us by many billions, but humans see themselves as ruling the earth because of our size.

[–] unexpected@forum.guncadindex.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't understand what you're arguing. You're saying it is lower than 90%? How much lower are you thinking? What specifically is the percentage number in your mind where linux becomes "more viable"? And does it not matter whether it is just a bigger number than before?

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 4 points 1 day ago

I think that I explained it. Here a shorter list:

these statistics are only about Steam games, not 90% of Windows games
90% of games does not equal to 90% players / users

Most players don't care how many games from the Steam catalog are playable, if their favorite game is not. That's the point. And the article did a bad job of making it clear.