The OP's comment "The several dozen people playing AAA games on linux must be thrilled." seems pretty realistic.
Increased number of games is simply because it is close to zero-effort for most game engines to press the button and deploy to Linux Steam. That doesn't mean anyone is actually playing them.
I had a quick look at the GOL site and I didn't see anything obvious claiming growth. Ironically (given the topic of this HN story) I did see this:
Get ready to become a neural detective as 'Observer' is now on Linux, AMD not supported.... I spoke with Aspyr Media, who confirmed to me the team has "currently no plans to support AMD at this time for Observer".[1]
Yet, clearly gaming on Linux will take off any day now... (And this is from someone who runs a Linux desktop computer)
> Increased number of games is simply because it is close to zero-effort for most game engines to press the button and deploy to Linux Steam.
It's far from zero effort. Besides, engines are making Linux support easier, is also driven by demand. But hey, legacy execs would rather talk about how Linux gamers don't buy games, instead of actually making games for Linux.
There were several articles with numbers from developers on GOL: https://www.gamingonlinux.com
Search for sales statistics or something of that sort there.