Wait, what? Does Steam bake in some kind of automatic virtualization support for Windows games these days?

Jup, comes with a customized proton build, and the ability to select specific proton versions if you have them installed.

I’d say 50% of games works out of the box. And 25% more after installing some video libraries that are for some reason not automatically installed.

You can also get more precise and up to date numbers on what does and doesn't work from ProtonDB[1]. In the reports for each game you're able to see details like distro release, proton release and any other extra steps required (if any) to get the game working.

[1] https://www.protondb.com

Proton DB is great, Donate to the maker!

Welp, especially with how infrequently I play games these days, there goes my last reason to ever install Windows on my home machines. Thanks for taking the time to give me a sense of how it looks “in reality” these days.