First github comment, hopefully this is appropriate. I wanted to add that I also have this issue on linux mint, steam DeferredBrowserMetrics currently taking up 10.2 GB on proton experimental. Currently 2616 4mb files, exactly listed above, in:
/home/sierra7/.steam/debian-installation/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics
Steam client version (build number or date): 1773426488
-Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Mint
Curious if its safe to delete these?
About Steam:
Steam Beta Branch: Stable Client
Steam Version: 1784778118
Steam Client Build Date: Thu, Jul 23, 2026 4:28 AM UTC -08:00
Steam Web Build Date: Tue, Jul 21, 2026 10:18 PM UTC -08:00
Steam API Version: SteamClient023
Im on Linux Mint.
Ive also found this issue aswell, mine growing to 7+GB in under 7 hours by making a 4MB file every 10 seconds. Its got 1748 files from just today, from 10:30:18 am to 16:41:15 pm (and i can see more getting added.
Running the commands sammy6345 ran
Head:
centremetre@CentreMetre:~$ ls ~/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics/ --sort=time --reverse --human-readable --format=long --numeric-uid-gid | head -n10
total 6.9G
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:30 BrowserMetrics-6A64822A-2357.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:30 BrowserMetrics-6A648234-23F0.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:30 BrowserMetrics-6A64823F-24EC.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:30 BrowserMetrics-6A648249-258B.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:30 BrowserMetrics-6A648253-2642.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:31 BrowserMetrics-6A64825D-2776.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:31 BrowserMetrics-6A648267-285C.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:31 BrowserMetrics-6A648271-28E0.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 10:31 BrowserMetrics-6A64827B-296E.pma
Tail:
centremetre@CentreMetre:~$ ls ~/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics/ --sort=time --reverse --human-readable --format=long --numeric-uid-gid | tail -n10
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:41 BrowserMetrics-6A64D91B-42081.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:41 BrowserMetrics-6A64D926-42124.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:41 BrowserMetrics-6A64D930-421BA.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:41 BrowserMetrics-6A64D93A-42258.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:41 BrowserMetrics-6A64D944-42304.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:42 BrowserMetrics-6A64D94E-4249D.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:42 BrowserMetrics-6A64D958-4253A.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:42 BrowserMetrics-6A64D962-425E3.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:42 BrowserMetrics-6A64D96D-4267A.pma
-rw------- 1 1000 1000 4.0M Jul 25 16:42 BrowserMetrics-6A64D977-4271A.pma
centremetre@CentreMetre:~$
Size of folder:
centremetre@CentreMetre:~$ du -sh /home/centremetre/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics
7.0G /home/centremetre/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics
Amount of files:
centremetre@CentreMetre:~$ ls -1 /home/centremetre/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics | wc -l
1801
Deleted 20GB of deferredbrowsermetrics a couple of days ago. Now back up to 20GB. This is a small boot drive with not a huge amount of space.
Found a suggestion to make the directory read-only which appears to be working so far.
proton experimentalx1 2026-04
Your system information
Steam client version (build number or date): 1773426488
Distribution (e.g. Ubuntu): Arch
Opted into Steam client beta?: No
Have you checked for system updates?: Yes
Steam Logs:
steam-logs.tar.gz
GPU: Intel
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
I hadn't know/noticed that this had happened initially, but I'd been having issues with storage on my root drive getting completely filled. I had removed a game that was 130GB, and I figured I could reinstall it later once I'd moved things around. Queue my surprise when I then had the drive fill back up again a few days later. I went and pulled up a disk usage analyzer after clearing a couple things from my package cache to check if I needed to prune that more. The home directory looked larger then I expected it to be, and on looking further in steam was much larger then expected, given I have a 2nd library on the root drive for installing games into. I have attempted client skinning in the past, but removed them a while back as I wasn't happy with what felt like a performance hit due to them being installed.
ls ~/.local/share/Steam/config/htmlcache/DeferredBrowserMetrics/ --sort=time --reverse --human-readable --format=long --numeric-uid-gid |head -n10output:and with tail:
Steps for reproducing this issue: