Nine out of ten Windows games can now run on Linux, data shows

[dakta]

I'd love to embrace Linux a bit more than I do, unfortunately app support genuinely isn't there but I'd welcome it with open arms.

Problem is though it's too fragmented - every now and then I see a linux fangroup pop up on my social media feed about how windows is sub-par to Linux, which may be a valid point (I hope it becomes more reality in time) BUT it always ends up with infighting on the same page about which distro is best for the uninitiated.

It ends up just looking like a fanboy shootout and as a result of this kind of thing, it's become it's own worst enemy. It still does not, from the outside, look or feel like a viable alternative for the masses, solve that problem and you could make a threat to M$ but until you learn to market you're just a hobbyists protest of an alternative. IMO of course.

 

[dangh]

I moved to linux more than 2 years ago, and not in a single moment I regretted this decision. Gaming is buttery smooth (I'm on amd, nvidia have some quirks with wayland), all my productive apps are working fine, I started using hyprland and I simply can't get back to clunkiness of the win/mac ui.

Using linux helped me to degoogle - I started with a $300 local cloud solution with photos, media streaming, cloud storage, dns system to be at least in control of my digital persona. It was easier than I thought it will be, and it is a great place to test and play around with things which do improve my professional skills as well.

Linux made huge improvements in the last years. And on top of that it is a great, accessible OS where you have a full control, if you want. It is more stable, energy efficient and user friendly than Windows ever been, and there are no advertisements... it is surprising now quickly I have adjusted, which simply tells me the UI and system philosophy is much more ergonomic than Windows approach.

 

[dangh]

Gotta imagine cheating would be a much worse issue if linux were popular enough to get a lot of cheaters to use it.

tell me you don't understand what poorly written anticheat is without saying you don't understand what anticheat is.

There are a few games that run better on Linux, but on average performance is massively better on Windows, and I suspect you already know this.

There is no 'massively better' performance on Windows even in games which runs poorly on linux. In average performance is pretty close, and not really affecting your experience. This on AMD cards. On nVidia, as they did not open their drivers, performance gets some hit on Linux system, but still far from 'massively' range.
Gamers Nexus has already built the testing process for Linux systems, we should see the results in coming weeks, so you will be able to see it more closely yourself.

 

[VariableSpike]

It's hard to imagine a claim more id1otic than "most players can now expect to run the majority of their gaming sessions on an open source operating system"
WTF that even means?

Just tell us how many of the top 10 games run on Linux without issues, or at all. I bet the answer is not "Nine out of ten".

Its pretty damn close I'd argue since I have a variety of titles in my library, from indie to aaa, and I can count the anount of games I had to manually adjust to make playable on one hand - the only thing that of course doesn't work is anything with kernel anti cheat, but its not like there is some magic workaround for that, more so less obtuse developers

 

[bviktor]

Well, I tried playing KF2 on Linux, but it had random stutter that was nonexistent on Windows. So "runs" is a pretty broad term for sure.

 

[yRaz]

Call me back when Linux can run one cracked game. Or when I copy a installed game into a folder and I do not have to do anything to it.

Until then...

I run cracked games all the time in Linux. If a title doesn't support proton and I already own it, the first thing info is download a crack and run it in WINE. Literally the only thing holding back games running on Linux is DRM and Anti cheat.

 

[amghwk]

There are a few games that run better on Linux, but on average performance is massively better on Windows, and I suspect you already know this.

I beg to differ. I find Linux can run games WAY better than Windows itself. Hence, my post. I've been using Linux from the early days. And I've totally discarded Windows after seeing Linux can do this and more.

If you are already running Windows and games in it, you don't need to use Linux. So I don't get your argument. Unless you just trying Linux and WINE for fun or experimental purposes.

For me, Linux is my main daily driver and main OS.

 

[adisoftcafe]

And 9/10 multiplayer games don't run on Linux. And guess what most people play today? I run Fedora as a main OS but I need to have a Win11 partition for mp games.

 

[TheBigT42]

This article states 10% of games don't work but doesn't list those games.

 

[TheBigT42]

Wow great AI score. Best HUMAN written score I have seen.

https://copyleaks.com/ai-content-detector 0%
https://decopy.ai/ai-detector/ 51%
https://quillbot.com/ai-content-detector 0%
https://www.grammarly.com/ai-detector 0%
https://www.scribbr.com/ai-detector/ 0%
https://www.zerogpt.com/ 25%

Possible AI 13%

 

[opckieran]

Call me back when Linux can run one cracked game. Or when I copy a installed game into a folder and I do not have to do anything to it.

Until then...

Why would you try to force malware to run on your system?

 

[Billybobjoey]

Just tell us how many of the top 10 games run on Linux without issues, or at all. I bet the answer is not "Nine out of ten".

Out of curiosity, I looked it up. The top 10 global best selling games on steam as of me writing this are (not counting preorders due to unclear testing data or DLC)

1. Battlefield 6 (Doesn't run due to anticheat)
2. Counter Strike 2 (Natively supports Linux according to the store page)
3. Crusader Kings 3 (Natively supports Linux according to the store page)
4. Dispatch (Platinum compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)
5. Escape from Duckov (Platinum compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)
6. RV There Yet? (Platinum compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)
7. Shadowverse: Worlds Beyond (Platinum compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)
8. The Outer Worlds 2 (Gold compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)
9. EA Sports FC 2026 (Doesn't run due to anticheat)
10. Sons of the Forest (Gold compatibility with linux according to ProtonDB)

So the only two with issues are both EA games and only due to not supporting their anticheat. 8/10 is a pretty good score I'd say.

 

[gamerk2]

Modern games run even better in Debian and Fedora, compared to Windows itself!

And WINE can run older DirectDraw games very well, compared to Windows, especially after Windows dropped support for DD.

There are many great games that used DirectDraw those days.

Tbf, most of those games do have .dll shims that replace the DirectDraw calls with something a bit more supported (usually DX9). But yeah, that Win95/98 era of gaming has various degrees of issues with modern Windows, but it is worth noting that in general most things still run reasonably well despite how much the OS changes.

Meanwhile, Linux expects you to recompile everything every time they make a minor kernel update.

 

[Kirby1]

I beg to differ. I find Linux can run games WAY better than Windows itself. Hence, my post. I've been using Linux from the early days. And I've totally discarded Windows after seeing Linux can do this and more.

If you are already running Windows and games in it, you don't need to use Linux. So I don't get your argument. Unless you just trying Linux and WINE for fun or experimental purposes.

For me, Linux is my main daily driver and main OS.

I don't have an argument. I have facts.

Fact: performance in games is better in windows than Linux on average.

I've seen benchmarks on this exact topic very recently and I trust the numbers more than your opinion.

If you prefer Linux, cool, but performance on Linux for games is worse on average even not counting all the games that wouldn't work at all. That is just the fact of the matter.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Sorry but that is just completely untrue. I switched one game rig to Bazzite and I have been very happy with the performance and yes all of the games do in fact run better then they did in Windows.

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Yeah, sure are lots of out-of-touch old worn out lines being rolled out in the comments.

Claiming games "run better in linux" with no evidence is pretty worn out, I'd agree.

I beg to differ. I find Linux can run games WAY better than Windows itself. Hence, my post. I've been using Linux from the early days. And I've totally discarded Windows after seeing Linux can do this and more.

If you are already running Windows and games in it, you don't need to use Linux. So I don't get your argument. Unless you just trying Linux and WINE for fun or experimental purposes.

For me, Linux is my main daily driver and main OS.

Data always trumps emotions.

 

[Phylop]

I’d love to switch my gaming PC to Linux, but what’s the plan for all these new games that require TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and invasive anti-cheat systems that only work on Windows? Games like Battlefield 6, and many more in the future, won’t run properly outside of it.

Until every game can run on Linux, most gamers will continue using Windows.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I’d love to switch my gaming PC to Linux, but what’s the plan for all these new games that require TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and invasive anti-cheat systems that only work on Windows? Games like Battlefield 6, and many more in the future, won’t run properly outside of it.

Until every game can run on Linux, most gamers will continue using Windows.

My solution is to not play those games.

There are literally tens of thousands of games out there. For multiplayer, Deep Rock Galactic is far more enjoyable then a sweaty lobby of teenagers no scoping you from across the map. If you want competitive FPS games, there's some that do run on linux (oh high there counterstrike) and lots of older shooters that have user hosted servers. My friends love getting together for some Battlefront (2004) which is still enjoyable 20 years later.

 

[Kirby1]

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Data always trumps emotions.

Wish you took this approach on when you comment on politics topic instead of making brain dead troll comments and then never replying to all the people who call you out.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Wish you took this approach on when you comment on politics topic instead of making brain dead troll comments and then never replying to all the people who call you out.

Pot calling the kettle black.

 

[Phylop]

Anecdotes are not evidence.

Claiming games "run better in linux" with no evidence is pretty worn out, I'd agree.

Data always trumps emotions.

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I imagine the people you’re quoting are referring to lightweight indie titles, older games, or they’re simply out of touch with reality, probably a mix of all three. Until there’s solid proof that brand new AAA games run better on Linux, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I’ll have to keep my gaming PC on Windows.

 

[Kirby1]

Pot calling the kettle black.

Not even close, I don't make one line troll comments on here and then ignore all the people quoting me after because I can't face being called out, but you do that on literally every political topic here. I could screenshot multiple examples if needed, but you won't be able to find any examples of me doing that.

 

[GoldenGoat]

I've played a lot of games on Linux over the last year. It works just fine for the games I play. I play on Windows too and it also works just fine too. I can't really tell once I get the game loaded. I don't play on Mac because they don't want to give you storage space required to install your games.

 

[Kirby1]

I imagine the people you’re quoting are referring to lightweight indie titles, older games, or they’re simply out of touch with reality—probably a mix of all three. Until there’s solid proof that brand new AAA games run better on Linux, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I’ll have to keep my gaming PC on Windows.

Ignore this, misread your comment.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I imagine the people you’re quoting are referring to lightweight indie titles, older games, or they’re simply out of touch with reality—probably a mix of all three. Until there’s solid proof that brand new AAA games run better on Linux, as much as I dislike Microsoft, I’ll have to keep my gaming PC on Windows.

Most likely. Or games that used DirectDraw that run very poorly on new PCs because 11 dropped compatibility.

there are specific examples that do run better in linux, but they're the exceptions, not the rule, unfortunately.

Not even close, I don't make one line troll comments on here and then ignore all the people quoting me after because I can't face being called out, but you do that on literally every political topic here. I could screenshot multiple examples if needed, but you won't be able to find any examples of me doing that.

Buddy, you got a problem with me, take it to DMs or post in the relevant political threads. Stop trying to derail conversation with your inflammatory crying.

Cool how you ignore all the proof he included in his post. Typical Linux user.

buddy....slow down, take a deep breath, and re read his comment.

He was AGREEING with me, saying that those who claimed Linux ran better then windows were likely referring to lightweight indies or older titles.

You seriously need to work on your ability to contextualize comments....

 

[GoldenGoat]

I’d love to switch my gaming PC to Linux, but what’s the plan for all these new games that require TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and invasive anti-cheat systems that only work on Windows? Games like Battlefield 6, and many more in the future, won’t run properly outside of it.

Until every game can run on Linux, most gamers will continue using Windows.

Some anti-cheats do work on linux (VAC, easy anti-cheat, punkbuster, battleye) and some still don't (EA javelin). Linux does work with TPM and secure boot as long as your kernel is signed. You can either use a distro that comes with a signed kernel who paid their microsoft tax, or you can sign the kernel yourself using a MOK (machine owner's key) and register your MOK with your UEFI.