Proton poked its head out three years ago like a hurricane. The compatibility layer based on Wine and promoted by Valve started very strong and rapidly improving its performance, but for a few months it seems that its progression has slowed down a bit, something logical if we take into account that at this point it is mainly resistant to games specific problems that give Wine and those that use an anti-cheat.
If in March we broke the news that 70% of the 50 most popular Steam games were capable of running on Linux thanks to Proton, that percentage, according to data that can be extracted from ProtonDB, has now risen to 79% counting the 100 most popular titles on the Valve platform. This means, making imprecise calculations, an increase of 9%, which is not bad at all. Even a few days ago the percentage reached 80.
If we broaden the spectrum to the thousand most popular games on Steam, the percentage drops to 76%, staying close to that obtained by the top 100. In other words, and especially if one focuses on single-player titles, one can currently have a very good experience on Steam using Linux as the operating system, since native games must be added to what is provided by Proton.
With regard to multiplayer titles for Windows or those that have multiplayer mode, it will be necessary to see if the developers that use Easy Anti-Cheat or Battleye are encouraged to support through Proton, something on which the success and reception will depend. you have the Steam Deck, Valve’s hybrid console / mini-PC that will use Linux as the operating system.
As we can see, and despite the fact that its improvement is no longer so explosive, Proton continues to gain ground, and If the developers put your mind to it, you could even quickly fix the problems you have with many online or online multiplayer games..
A couple of days ago the Steam winter deals, with many titles that can be found at heavily discounted prices. If one has doubts about whether a game works correctly or not on Linux, it would be advisable to consult the note that users have given it in ProtonDB, where you can also find tricks that usually consist of resorting to a launch parameter or to Proton Glorious Eggroll, a community fork of the compatibility layer that generally gives better results with recent triple-A titles.
