I remember well when saying the words “gaming on Linux” would get you laughed out of the room. Then the original Steam Deck came out in early 2022 running SteamOS (a Linux distro) and using the Wine-based Proton compatibility layer to translate Windows games, and Linux gaming flipped from unthinkable to preferable almost overnight. Linux game translation has gotten so good that in some cases, it performs better than Windows, among other benefits. Now we can ask the following question in complete seriousness: Can Linux replace Windows on your gaming PC?
I have been gaming on Linux for almost five years now, if you round up a bit; I got my feet wet with the Steam Deck on release. Initially, I kept my gaming PC on Windows and used my Steam Deck to play less-demanding titles, particularly indie ones. But it slowly made me a believer, and the poles swapped. By 2025, I had wiped Windows off my gaming hardware entirely and replaced it with Bazzite, a SteamOS-based Linux distro ideal for former Windows gamers. I have seen almost no hide nor hair of Windows in over a year, and yet I’ve been PC gaming happily the entire time. Do I regret it? Is Linux really in a place where you could erase Windows and be OK? Let’s discuss.
Basically every game works out of the box
I am not exaggerating for the sake of sensationalism when I say that virtually every game I’ve tried on Linux has just worked. Dozens upon dozens of single-player games and multiplayer games, hyperrealistic AAA games and pixel-art indie games, you name it. They. Just. Work. About 95% of the time I hit the play button and the rest was history. Another 4.99% of the time, it required a simple change like swapping the Proton version, adding a launch command, or — extremely rarely — needing to mess with game files. The final 0.01% of the time — I kid you not, I can count those times on one hand — a game would not play despite my best efforts.
The data’s on my side. Steam’s Verified program includes almost 9,000 Verified games, a number that goes up to almost 30,000 if you include the playable ones. These are the most-played games we’re talking about, too; I’d wager there’s only a minority of people who play games beyond that 30,000. ProtonDB, a community rating system, says only about 1% of popular games are “borked,” i.e., not working at all. To be fair, Steam has many tens of thousands more unverified games, but it’s important to understand that “untested” doesn’t mean “unplayable.” I have tried a couple dozen “unsupported” games that worked, no questions asked, so the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
The question you should be asking is shifting from “can Linux run your game?” to “how well?” You’ll still want to check ProtonDB ratings before you buy the game, just in case. But I mean, we’re already playing PC games on Android for crying out loud.
Anti-cheat remains the only major dealbreaker
If you know anything about Linux gaming, then you know that anti-cheat games often flat-out do not work. I won’t deny it. The most popular games out there — “Fortnite,” “Battlefield 6,” “League of Legends” — are unplayable. If that fact completely kills your desire to use Linux, I don’t blame you. But if I may, permit me to prove to you the situation is not as horrible as it seems.
For one, you can often just use game streaming to play anti-cheat games on Linux. NVIDIA GeForce NOW will let you play for free for one-hour gaming sessions, and a 1-year plan with longer play sessions costs roughly the same as a Netflix membership at $99. There’s even an official Linux app. If all your games but that one anti-cheat game work on Linux, then this could be a viable solution. And don’t forget that some of these games, like “Fortnite,” have ports on other systems you might own. Further, I think the average person would be surprised by how many amazing multiplayer games work on Linux. Valve’s own titles, like “Counter-Strike,” obviously work. My personal favorites — “ARC Raiders” and “Helldivers 2” — work flawlessly, too. I know it might sound like a cop-out, but if you expand your horizons a bit, you’d be surprised at what you can play online.
Having said that, I do admit the outlook for anti-cheat on Linux is bleak. The anti-cheat measures have gotten more strict, not less, like the Secure Boot requirement for “Battlefield 6” in 2025. There’s always a possibility of the industry shifting to server-based anti-cheat and Linux workarounds, but for now, I make no promises. Linux is not ready for heavy multiplayer gamers, full stop.
For handhelds and living room PCs, Linux is essential
One of the biggest issues with Windows gaming is how woefully inadequate controller support has been. It was only very recently that Windows introduced Full Screen Experience, or Xbox mode, a controller-friendly way to access games on your Windows PC. I tried this one for myself with a short-lived Windows 11 install, and … it’s downright terrible. A half-baked, unintuitive interface lacking customization. And in true Windows fashion, it forces a whole bunch of things upon you that you didn’t ask for, which you can’t disable. Most reviews I’ve seen of it feel similarly. That’s where Linux comes in.
If you’re using SteamOS or a gaming-focused distro like Bazzite, CachyOS, or Nobara, controller integration is excellent, resembling Steam’s equally excellent Big Picture mode. Basically, everything you need or want can be done without ever touching a mouse and keyboard; you’ll only need those if you change to desktop mode, and even then you can do a lot in desktop mode with the touchscreen on a gaming handheld. So if you play with a controller, this is a huge win for Linux over Windows. I really cannot find even a glimmer of optimism that Windows Xbox mode will someday match Linux handheld mode, and it seems like community efforts to replace it — such as Winhanced — are evidence others agree.
Controller support goes from preferable to non-negotiable if you’re using a Linux-based PC hooked up to your living room TV. Just look at the Steam Machine, an overpriced little PC-console that’s selling like hot cakes. There’s no contest here; Linux has Windows KO’d on the floor when it comes to controller support.
Non-Steam games can still be a pain
Ask any PC gamer, and 999 times out of 1000 they’ll tell you they have a Steam account. Steam is practically the de facto PC storefront, and it dwarfs Epic (the home of “Fortnite”) in revenue. It’s rare for a PC release not to make it to Steam. So if you have most of (or your entire) library on Steam and you switch to Linux, all you have to do is use a SteamOS-like distribution where Steam is the baked-in default (Bazzite, CachyOS, Nobara) or download the Steam app. Either way, playing games will be effortless. The problem arises when you want to play games on other PC storefronts.
Make no mistake, it is really easy to access non-Steam games in the above two situations. Apps like Heroic Launcher make it easy to install and integrate Epic, GOG, and even Amazon Prime games on Linux or a SteamOS-based device. Even so, you still have to go through the tedious (although easy) process of adding these games to Steam in desktop mode so they appear when you’re in handheld mode. Installing games manually outside of these storefronts is even more tedious in my experience, even if that’s an edge case.
This is ironically one area where Windows Xbox mode is better; you can see all your games from one screen regardless of which platform they’re downloaded from. I admit Linux is only introducing a small bit of friction that is outweighed by the benefits, but it is friction nonetheless. Some of that friction may soon erode, however. There’s apparently an Epic Games native Linux app in the pipeline. One less middleman between you and your games is progress, but Windows still has a bit of an edge here.
You may have issues with some closed standards
Say what you will about Windows, it rarely gives you compatibility issues. Games just run the way they’re supposed to, and that’s that. The words “Linux,” “compatibility,” and “proprietary” on the other hand are usually a poor mix. One of the most memorable moments in Linux history was when Linus Torvalds (Linux’s founder) directed his raised middle finger at NVIDIA and said a four-letter word we can’t repeat here, all because NVIDIA made its proprietary hardware difficult to use on Linux systems. That changed and Torvalds reversed his position, but there can still be compatibility issues anytime a proprietary standard is involved.
A perfect recent example is support for HDMI 2.1. HDMI 2.1 is a must for gamers because it lets you play at 4K 120 Hz and use features like VRR. It went unsupported for years until the HDMI forum finally caved and allowed an open-source integration for the Linux kernel. But … I haven’t gotten it to work, and I’m not alone. I could probably find a way if I had the patience to troubleshoot the issue, or perhaps I could just wait for a patch. But here’s the thing: When I want to play games, I want to just play games. I don’t want to do unpaid tech support for something that would be plug-and-play on Windows.
HDMI 2.1 is a case study of the little ways Linux gaming still falls short; Windows users have been happily enjoying HDMI 2.1 for years, and when it finally arrives on Linux, it suffers from so many teething issues that some might regret their switch to Linux. It’s not enough of an issue to make me delete Bazzite and slink back in shame to Windows, but it is worth knowing.
