Estimated Active Flathub Users

Conservative automated estimate based on Cassidy’s manual approach used for “Over One Million Active Users, and Growing” and “2 Billion Downloads & Other Milestones from 2024 So Far”. Derived from the number of updates to the FreeDesktop SDK platform served by Flathub.

Flathub does not collect user or device metrics. However, it does log the number of downloads it serves of each app, runtime (shared base for several apps), and extension (e.g. graphics drivers). Downloads are also flagged as an update if the device already had an older version. Lastly, Mesa graphics extensions are released as part of the FreeDesktop SDK platform and used by all apps for the majority of users.

Active users over time

Given this data, we can estimate a floor* for the number of active users: the largest number of updates delivered to a recent FreeDesktop SDK platform runtime or Mesa extension. To help account for the natural volatility of the data, we measure the highest count from the past ~six months (180 days). Explore the data used to calculate the estimate in the interactive chart below.

This method is imperfect and likely systematically under-estimates users: multiple branches of the FreeDesktop SDK platform may be in use by any given device at a time, so they can’t be summed; the length of a release’s lifecycle directly impacts how many active devices download it (instead of the next patch release); and desktop platform adoption and release cycles introduce countless additional variables that affect runtime adoption. However, it’s the best and most transparent proxy we’ve come up with thus far.

*A dip in the estimate does not necessarily equate to fewer active users; it simply represents the lowest estimate we’re comfortable making, and may be affected by several external factors.