this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025

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Steam Deck

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Three years later, the Steam Deck has dominated handheld PC gaming (www.theverge.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This article includes sales estimates for different handhelds from market research firm IDC.

They place total handheld PC sales of the Steam Deck, RoG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw at almost 6 million units for the past 3 years. It's estimated that the Steam Deck makes up between 3.7 to 4 million of those sales, more than all the other major handheld PC manufacturers combined.

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The Steam Deck arguably created the handheld PC gaming market.

Sure, there were handhelds before, but almost no one gave a shit about them. Gamedevs certainly didn't.

It wasn't enough just having the hardware exist, it's also the massive amount of effort Valve put in to ensure compatibility with a ridiculous number of titles.

The renewed emphasis on controller support in games alone has significant ramifications for the wider community. A lot of players with physical disabilities use input devices that map to controller actions.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Compatibility is one thing and a heck of a important one.

The software and interface is great too. It's not perfect at all. However, the fact that the power button suspends and resumes my games and I can just select from a menu and stuff. It's a big deal. Like, I'm a programmer but I get tired at the end of a work day and just want to play some games without fiddling too much sometimes.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

Feels a bit like the iPhone, there were some smartphones back then, but the iPhone took it to the next level.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

"renewed emphasis on controller support"

Eh... I've been gaming with a controller on my PC for a very very long time without any issues...

[–] Zorque 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well if you don't have any issues, no one else must either...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What I meant is that there hasn't been more emphasis on controller support since the Deck released, games release on consoles and PC so they already support controllers and games that don't are just made easier to play with the track pads on the Deck, they're still just as shit to play on a regular controller.

[–] Zorque -1 points 1 week ago

In your experience, at least?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

Not much to argue, it literally did

[–] drmoose 42 points 1 week ago

I still can't stop salivating what an incredible device it is. I have two!

It's a full unrestricted linux computer you can dock seamlessly with any usb c hub. Its crazy what you can do with it and the community is so huge already that most of the things you want to do are already done for you.

Made a fan of Valve for life out of me. Bought like 300 games I don't play already tho so that's a draw back lol

[–] nycki 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Not enough people seem to get that the Steam Deck isn't just a console that runs PC games, it's also a console that runs mods. The first games I played on mine didn't stretch its graphical capabilities, they were just games like Stardew and Minecraft that I could have played on the Switch, but only on the Steam Deck could I play them my way.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The only catch there is that installing mods can be tricky depending on the game and method. Steam workshop mods and games with integrated mod support (BG3, DRG, etc) are super easy to install mods for, but the mod installation process for many other games can vary on difficulty.

Hopefully this will all change with with the rise of more official Linux mod loaders like the new Nexus mods app.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Many mods were made way easier with a recent Proton update. Lots of games use DLL overrides to load mods, which required setting launch commands to use through Proton. This is no longer an issue, so any mods that work by doing this will now function perfectly out of the box.

I recently nodded GTA and the mod had specific instructions for Linux, which I was able to simply ignore thanks to this update.

Most games that use the Nexus mod manager can also be nodded manually, but I do agree that having a native launcher is really nice. I've already used it with Cyberpunk. Hopefully native Mod Organizer 2 will happen one day!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)

A year and a half ago, I was looking for a handheld gaming device. I narrowed my search down to the SteamDeck and the Switch. In the end, I picked the Switch as I've had much more fun and entertainment with the Nintnedo environment vs the PC gaming world. I really, really want to love the SteamDeck and its abilities but it's just not happening for me yet. Can someone sell me?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago

I’ve had a Switch since it launched. For the most part, it collected dust - it saw use around certain major game releases and that’s it.

My Steam Deck has completely displaced my high end (well, for 2021) gaming PC - anything that doesn’t run well natively is easily streamed over the network from that PC. I can hang out in the living room watching TV with my partner.

The emulation capabilities have allowed me to conveniently tap back into my entire childhood of gaming, even extending into some titles that I had missed.

The biggest thing has been having access to the entire PC gaming content library. Sales, free Epic games, Amazon Prime Gaming - it’s all there. It’s a far better value proposition than the Switch.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago

The Steam Deck can behave like a Switch; if you want to stick to just Steam games with a big ✅ verified icon then it will probably be a similar experience, just with a different library of games (and better sales).

The Steam Deck can also be a full PC; you can plug in keyboard, mouse, screens, whatever, and use it to replace your laptop/desktop if you really want.

The middle ground is that the Steam Deck can be an incredibly versatile gaming machine. I can play the verified Steam games, I can usually play the non-verified games, I can install Heroic/Lutris and install all my free Epic/GOG/Amazon games with minimal tinkering, I can install emulators and run all my old Nintendo games at better resolutions and frame rates, and if I really feel like tinkering then I can install whatever else I want and try to get it working, but I always have all the reliable games to fall back on if I can't!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

You can play those Switch games plus a ton of other games on the Deck. Apart from technical capability there are 0 restrictions on what you can do with your Deck. You can play Steam games, GOG games, Epic games, Nintendo games, PlayStation games, Commodore 64 games, Arcade games, etc.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

I have a couple of uses for my steamdeck. The vast majority of the time it sits in my living room. I use it while I'm watching TV with my wife. The ability to pick it up, resume whatever I'm playing right where I left off is great.

The other use is when I'm traveling. It's smaller than a laptop, desktop mode is a fully functional Linux operating system, and it connects to any hdmi port with a small dock. That means I can use it to game, and connect it to the TV in the hotel room and watch whatever I want.

[–] nycki 3 points 1 week ago

The thing that sold me on the Steam Deck: mods. Mods for minecraft, mods for skyrim, mods for stardew valley, mods for SteamOS itself. I can customize it like no other console, and I don't even need to hack it first.

[–] woelkchen 1 points 1 week ago

If you only play Mario, Zelda and such, that's perfectly fine and then a Nintendo's own console is obviously superior.

3rd party games usually run much better on Steam Deck (not surprisingly because of its much more recent hardware). I bought Team Sonic Racing again on Steam after I had a very bad experience playing the Switch version in split screen multiplayer. It just stutters way to much and on one course it's IMO unplayable.

[+] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (5 children)

[deleted]

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Their big thing is that the new steam deck 2 has to be a significant performance increase over the existing steam deck, and that's not really an option yet

[–] pivot_root 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Their approach leaves me with conflicting feelings.

On one hand, I dislike how the Steam Deck is among the weaker offerings for performance. On the other hand, I appreciate that it's not a commodified device like phones, which keep increasing in price with only miniscule incremental improvements year over year.

It wouldn't be as conflicting if they had better competitors following the yearly-improvement business model, as that would give more of a choice for those who prefer buying a new device each year. But, at least right now, the competing devices are pretty shit. None of them have dual track pads and 4 back buttons in addition to the standard inputs, and they're all running Windows 11 with a bloatware bandage to cover up the fact that the OS is far from controller-friendly.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Honestly the Steam Deck could never become more powerful and I would be perfectly fine with it. Hardware reliability, ecosystem maturity and quality of life features are what actually matters. The deck already can run several lifetimes of indy games and that is just going to grow.

Chasing performance to improve Steam Deck sales I think is a subpar play, though that being said more powerful hardware is always welcome.

In my opinion the pc gaming market (excluding indies) has an irrational obsession on focusing only on making performance heavy games with extremely taxing system requirements, the Steam Deck blowing up in popularity with its subpar hardware is honestly one of the best things that could happen to the pc gaming industry.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

I agree completely. I would love if the popularity of mid-range handheld devices like the SD convinced more companies to steer away from the obsession with ever increasing graphical fidelity.

It's also nice having a handheld PC that is so reasonably priced in comparison to a lot of the other offerings in the handheld PC market.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago

There’s really nothing much better on the chip market if you’re concerned about power/battery life.

Valve has no reason to get into a hardware pissing contest. They just want to grow the Steam pie so don’t expect a SD2 until there’s a compelling difference.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I've yet to see another handheld that has touchpads like the Deck. IMO those are a must-have because a lot of older games especially don't have good controller support.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

one of the recent announcements had them. Forgot which one, though

[–] drmoose 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think as long as PC handheld are winning Valve is more interested in have them ship steam or even better - steamos.

The upgrades from other devices felt very marginal tho it feels like we're close to where new steamdeck would make sense power wise.

[+] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] drmoose 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Having arch based os become mainstream would be huge for linuc gaming. Steamdeck already is and it just showing how much better linux is for gaming when approached with proper resources.

I was just reading the Verge's review of legion go s and Bazzite was giving like 10-40% performance improvement over windows - that's just crazy.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Steam deck OLED is actually more powerful than the legion go S from what I've seen online so far

I strongly doubt that considering the head-to-head specs of the Z2 Go vs the Sephiroth APU. They're both 4c/8t but the Z2 has significantly faster base clock and turbo on both the CPU & GPU, as well as more compute & shader units, and hardware raytracing.

The Z1 Extreme in the original Legion Go also dominates over the Deck with even higher clocks, and an 8c/16t CPU. Plus with Bazzite you get a SteamOS-like experience.

However you're 100% right about the fact that Valve don't necessarily care about the Deck making money. They made it to create a market segment that makes them more profits on Steam, and to encourage the push towards Linux gaming due to their long-term cold war with Microsoft. What I'd actually love to see them do is a Steam Deck Pro with the Z2 Extreme and a 1440p display. Maybe with a bottom USB-C port, a proper dock and a revamped Steam Controller.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I agree, but I think Valve has said a Steam Deck 2 isn't coming anytime soon. I was wanting to hold out for an announcement, but I might just go ahead and pull the trigger.

[–] morgan_423 1 points 1 week ago

I'm curious about the Go 2. Huge OLED screen... I know it's not supposed to come out for a minute, but it's tempting.

The ergonomics put me off of the first Go, it was not comfy to hold when I tried the display model. But I think they're addressing that. We'll have to see how it goes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Should sif it created a market which seem stable.