FYI: That's more Windows games than run in Windows!

WTF? Why? Because a lot of older games don't run in newer versions of Windows than when they were made! They still run great in Linux though 👍

Meanwhile nearly 60% of Windows Games now run on Windows.

I am a PC gamer and I exclusively use Linux. It's completely viable for gaming, I can say for a fact.

The only ones that wouldn't work are probably the ones with kernel level anti cheat. Maybe if I would be much younger, I might have had different opinion, but, as of today, I believe that all these games that wont run on Linux due to anti-cheat are cancer anyway.

Just made the switch, surprised how smooth the transition went so far.

2026 will be the year of the Linux desktop!

In my personal experience, the only games that don't work are those that explicitly choose not to :

• Fortnite
• PUBG
• Roblox
• Valorant

I'm not much into competitive games myself, so the only one that's inconvenient in this list to me is Roblox. There are a few really fun games on their platform that I wish I could play on Steam Deck, as used to be possible.

I'm installing Mint for the first time at this very moment. So far, it's easier than I anticipated. Fuck You Microsoft.

Edit: bro, firstly, what the fuck and where did all this performance come from?!?! I vastly underestimated how many resources windows was hogging. I downloaded Steam (easy-peasy) and then Project Zomboid just as a test. This game runs like butter now. I was having major problems with it before. To the point I basically stopped playing. I know its just one example but I haven't had my machine run this well in several years, I feel. Also, got Spotify running. Super easy. I need to figure out how to get my VPN set up (ProtonVPN) but so far, I'm kind of in shock. I can't wait to actually dig in and see what I can do with this new setup.

i wonder how these numbers change if you weight by active players. like sure, Shooty Guns 2 (2008) running on linux is a good thing, but if it has a grand total of 5 people in the world playing it, it won't really do much for linux adoption as long as games like league of legends, apex legends and fortnite still don't work

(for the record i don't play any of those games and i've been happily daily-driving linux with no windows intervention for the last 4 year)

Linux doesnt have games that install kernel-level spyware under the guise of anti-cheat. Hopefully never will, but I don't underestimate gamers who love think spyware is a good idea. Stay away from linux if you want kernel anti cheat please, its ruining computers

And how many run on linux via a well documented way?

I've been playing around with bazzite a bit, and for sure, i can run a lot of games on it, but you often end up googling which launcher to use, which settings to use, ... And then even if you find something, it doesn't always work.

Linux is making good progress in this regard, but this title feels a bit over optimistic (or at least, users who take it at face value will quickly be disappointed when they can't get 90% of their games to work).

trying to force AI into windows 11 isnt helping MS.

I made the switch almost a year ago when they started announcing all the spyware coming to win11. The distro you choose matters a LOT. After several that were buggy and frustrating I landed on Garuda dragonized. Setup was easy with their assistant finding the drivers I needed and I have yet to have any system breaking updates. Better track record than windows TBH. Performance is great, and steam integrates so well with proton that my experience is honestly just as good as windows native. I should probably go make a donation to the Garuda project, now that I'm thinking about it.

Well, I'm 90% proud of Linux!

One of the most frequently suggested beginner distros is Linux mint. It's great, it's stable, it's what I use and while it's not exactly cutting edge, or necessary the prettiest distro, it's great for beginners and will feel pretty familiar coming from windows.

Pop_os! And bazzite are more "gaming focused" if that's more your style, but I've never had an issue gaming with Linux mint.

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter terribly much. Pick one, install it to a new drive and try it out. If you don't like it, pick another one.

But what percentage of games that use anticheat?

if i cant run something at linux i'll just do without it. Might try virtual machine if its something really crucial but might not care to even bother. Fortunately any games i know that will not run are kind of games that i wouldnt want to touch anyway.

Linux Mint here. I have had only 1 issue with a game on Linux and honestly, it was an easier fix then getting some games working on Windows which I have experienced plenty of as well. Linux really is just as easy as "Install from Steam, play".

Drivers are easy now today too, just like Windows. Honestly, if you gamed on Windows, you have all you need to game on Linux.