According to Valve, the free Linux operating system currently supports about 75 percent of the top 1,000 games on Steam. At the absolute top of the top 100 game rankings, the operating system supports up to 80 percent of games. Only in the top ten games can only four games come with Linux support, which is a relatively low value.
Valve started improving its Linux platform for gaming about three years ago, and has been working hard on compatibility of its own games and Steam platform for Linux since 2018. With SteamOS, the company even offers its own Linux-based distribution, which is provided for free and also as the basis for Steam devices.
Steam ranks Linux compatibility for the games shown directly in the overview. While platinum and gold-grade games can run without restrictions on the Linux platform, silver-grade games can cause minor problems. Games that only come with a bronze medal can face bigger issues like regular crashes or other serious issues. Additionally, games that are not compatible with Linux are marked as “Borked”.
Games can be searched simply and specifically for compatibility via the Proton database; A full game series can also be viewed. It is expected that Valve will continue to work on gaming compatibility with Linux in the next year and that developers will also keep an eye on the free platform as an alternative to Windows.
