Proton Has Brought About 6000 Games to Linux So Far

Apart from the new games that Proton brings us on a regular basis, it’s also important to look as a whole how Proton has changed the landscape over time. While the numbers are always pretty much available on the front page of ProtonDB, I take a slightly different look at it to build a graph of “Platinum” games (i.e. working out of the box without any tricks) to Linux using Proton. And you get this: (click to enlarge)

Proton 6000 games

A few take-aways from this graph:

  • Proton has done far more for Linux gaming than any porting company out there, by bringing about 6000 games to us in less than 2 years.
  • There’s about 100 games every month that get a Platinum rating according to ProtonDB. (because of the recent changes on ProtonDB rating, this is now more accurate than it was before).
  • Proton has become better over time: the percentage of games getting a Platinum rating is steadily increasing over time as well – it used to be about 40% of all unique games reported, and now we are closer to 50%. This is cumulative, so the range will vary month by month but the trend is very clear.

This does not even take in account games that are playable with minor modifications (adding a launcher flag, changing the name of an .exe in a directory, etc…) so the real number of games you can actually enjoy with Proton is way higher than that. But “Platinum” sets the bar high and we ought to judge Proton on its promise: making Windows games work on Linux with just one click.

So far, it’s been an overwhelming success.

You can join the conversation on this article on Hacker News or r/linux_gaming.


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[…] its effects on the Linux gaming market. Fortunately, the Linux gaming Boiling Steam site puts some numbers into perspective. Using the unofficial ProtonDB community site’s stats, it estimates that almost 6,000 games on […]

Jack

Please please please. Wine and DXVK are what brought those games to you. Proton has nothing to do with it, really. Proton is just a rebrand of those project and Valve has invested almost nothing in Wine/DXVK development: they are just reaping the benefits.

Trumpman

There is no problem when using Windows from the beginning, and it also solves all problems with Epic Games and Xbox Games for PC.

Trumpman

I don’t joke about any work in the article, but “obstinate” people like that.

someone

This is the most optimistic Linux data I have ever seen. Makes me hate Windows Defenders even more. Thank you

Trumpman

Feelings of obstinate people like you are useless and trivial matters to enjoy games.
Hold your ugly hate until your whole life and carry it to the grave.

someone

thats a funny joke
there are some people unlike you who don’t want to use Windows and still want to enjoy games. Im sorry if you hate them because they are different, but isn’t it natural to hate somebody back

Matthew Gomez

I, too, am someone who ventures to an area with people holding contrary beliefs to you just to try to prove your point at the expense of mutual respect for the human being.

Old Greg

I don’t even bother booting windows anymore unless I want to play red dead redemption or a game that I want to run a trainer on

[…] Proton has done far more for Linux gaming than any porting company out there, by bringing about 6000 games to us in less than 2 years. […]

Proton has done almost nothing for it, sorry. It’s Wine and DXVK who did. Proton is just reaping the benefits.

Grigi

This is surpprisingly good!
Nearly half of my Proton games require a very minor tweak to work perfectly.
So, how many are Gold I wonder?

Well, I suppose some of them was because I was running Witcher3 on an Intel IGP and we had to do many fixes for anv. Although recently it has been much better.

Grigi

720p, Mostly Low settings, except detail could be high (that’s more CPU bound) and textures at medium (as it didn’t affect performance much, but looked so much better). I got ~20-30fps for the game which is perfectly playable for that game, as it isn’t about lightning reflexes. Smooth enough to not break the immersion. When I first started playing perf was bad, but with a few open tickets re rendering issues, some devs managed to find ANV bottlenecks, and by the time I finished the game, the performance was up at least 25% or so 😀 Left me with a… Read more »

Grigi

Yes, completed it. And I enjoyed it too!
Generally fights wasn’t a problem, as the movement speed and animation was consistent (as in not jerky).
If it stuttered it would have been unplayable, but luckily not.