This is the time, folks, to review how distros used for Gaming are doing, according to all the data we can collect on ProtonDB.

It’s All in the Chart

This is the one chart you need to look at, with good glasses or 20/20 vision.

For everyone else, just click on the damn picture to expand it.

Common misconceptions

Since we hear some of the following comments EVERY SINGLE TIME, let’s address them here and now:

• “Duh, it’s not representative of Linux usage in general!”: And nowhere does it claim to be. As often as possible we make it clear this is Linux usage in a gaming context. The usage of Debian and Ubuntu on servers is safe for now, no need to panic.
• “Duh, Arch is popular because SteamOS is using it”: 100% wrong in this particular context. You clearly see that Arch was popular in this data source WELL BEFORE Valve had an inkling about using Arch as a basis for SteamOS, and the launch of the Steam Deck has had no noticeable impact on the distro trends seen here. Why is that? Because this dataset is mainly composed of desktop distros, not Steam Deck related. There are a few people using HoloISO on the desktop too, but it’s such a small minority it does not appear anywhere the top.
• “Flatpak is not a distro”: you are right, it’s not, but it’s very close to one. Flatpak replaces everything in your environment, libraries, dependencies, and even your graphics drivers. The only thing it does not touch is your kernel. The reason why we report it this way is because it shows up this way in the data. When you are running Steam on Flatpak, it reports the Flatpak environment as being your OS.
• “Dude, my favorite distro for gaming is not winning, so your data must be cooked”: Cognitive dissonance?

With these things now out of the way, let’s move on.

Recent Trends: What’s going on ?

Let’s look at what’s been changing over the past few months.

The Rising Tide: Fedora

This is the first time Fedora reaches such highs, with 12.4 % market share in our dataset. This is also the first time Ubuntu falls down to a 10.3% share!

Why is Fedora making such big strides? We can’t say for sure, but the answer may be Bazzite. Bazzite is an immutable OS based on Fedora, that is namely made for gaming (but not only) and targets good support for AMD GPUs and Intel-based handhelds. Since it’s based on Fedora it does not appear as its own distro (at least for now), and it may be responsible for the growing popularity of the Red-hat based OS. Based on a poll we have recently conducted on our Mastodon account, it looks like quite a few of you are already well aware of Bazzite:

Bazzite is the talk of the town on Reddit and on Youtube, and it’s bound to have grown in user adoption according to the amount of noise it has produced so far. ETA Prime has just published a video about the excellent day 1 support of Bazzite on the new ROG Ally X:

Beside Bazzite and the official Fedora distro, let’s not forget Nobara, also based on Fedora (yet counted separately), which has a small but solid share.

Linux Mint vs Ubuntu

Ubuntu is now at risk of falling further as Mint reaches 10.2% for the first time since 2020. Ubuntu is now a fourth of what it was 5 years ago, and there’s no telling where it may go next in the gaming context. Mint has been one of the most stable distros in our chart, most of the time between 8 and 12%. It looks like this stability and endurance is paying off as other distros come and go and the giants like Ubuntu keep falling to their knees. Even Pop_OS! that was once seemingly getting more and more popular, has fallen significantly since last year. It’s now figthing with Manjaro in the depths of the chart.

Linux Mint has recently, on July 25th, released their 22nd edition called Wilma. I have just given it a spin on one of my new hardware, and it’s as good and user-friendly as it has ever been. Smooth installation, no annoying bugs, just a clean system that sets you in a comfortable seat in just a few minutes. It does not make waves, it doesn’t try to sparkle, but it does the mundane things really, really well. And nobody really talks about it, but users KNOW how solid it is.

Where are we going from there?

Difficult to say. I’d be inclined to predict that Pop_OS! is going to resurface at some point, since the developers are working on the COSMIC desktop. We can expect it to attract people who like desktop innovation. But then again, I had never expected Pop_OS! to lose share in the first place, so I probably don’t have some great insight here. The one thing I’m confident about is the fact that Manjaro is probably going to fall even further. I just don’t see a reason for it to exist, and it has destroyed its own credibility over and over again. Arch is very likely to remain number 1 for a while. There’s no direct contender to replace everything it does. But Fedora… I’d wager it’s still on its way up. It’s the kind of distro I keep hearing about, and people who rally behind it are solid believers.

They might just convince more and more of us.