Steam Play



Steam Play is a feature that allows you to run compatibility layers in the Linux version of the Steam client. Proton being one of them, based upon another called Wine, allowing you to play thousands of Windows-only games on Linux. Be sure to check out our constantly updated beginner's guide here.

Steam Player Count

Once a game is downloaded, use the Steam Client to play the game. If Steam isn't already running then Run the Steam Client on your computer: In Windows click on START or the Windows flag in the bottom left of the screen - Type STEAM and then choose Steam from the list. Steam is the most popular game client on PCs, and its newest feature, quietly released in November, is called Remote Play Together. It lets people play local multiplayer games over the internet.

Need help? We have a Steam Play forum and a dedicated channel in our Discord.

Steam’s new Remote Play Together feature, which lets you play local multiplayer games over the internet, has launched in beta. What is Steam Play? Detailed information about Steam Play can be found at the Steam Play announcement and details page. When you click on the game's 'play' button, it brings up the 'preparing to launch' screen, then nothing happens. For some reason, Steam refuses to properly create the game's prefix folder - when you look inside it's simply a 0 byte pfx.lock file. So in order to debug the issue, I ran Steam through a terminal.

Steam
  • Proton Experimental gets upgraded, Forza Horizon 4 playable and Origin Overlay works by Liam Dawe
    23 April 2021 at 8:44 am UTC
  • Direct3D 12 to Vulkan layer VKD3D-Proton 2.3 is out with early DirectX Raytracing support by Liam Dawe
    22 April 2021 at 8:03 pm UTC
  • Steam Play Proton 6.3 is out now plus a Proton Experimental update (updated) by Liam Dawe
    1 April 2021 at 8:34 pm UTC
  • VKD3D-Proton works towards Ray Tracing, new small Proton Experimental build up by Liam Dawe
    12 March 2021 at 9:31 am UTC
  • Another Proton Experimental update is out improving VR and controllers by Liam Dawe
    3 March 2021 at 4:59 pm UTC
  • + View more Steam Play articles
Steam play
What is the status of Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye with Proton?
Neither currently work or are supported with Proton.
What about Denuvo Anti-Cheat?
Read the full details of that in this linked article.
Can I use Proton outside of Steam?
Yes. Lutris can help with this but it's a bit complicated. Lutris has its own special Wine builds that are easier to use.
Where do I report bugs in Proton and broken games?
Onto Valve's GitHub page but try asking in our forum first.
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Steam Play

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Steam Players

Steam Tracker - historical data on the Linux market-share on Steam.
User Statistics - see what systems our users are running.