Steam Deck to hit 3 million sales during 2023

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/analyst-steam-deck-will-sell-3-million-units-by-2023-s-end

The best new piece of hardware this generation, Valves Steam Deck is enjoying a wonderful run in its first iteration on the open market. Maybe more importantly for Valve it could be the Trojan horse that ultimately helps cultivate a separation from windows based gaming. What do you think system wars? I have yet to speak with a single person who owns and disloves their deck... Valve has been second to none in terms of support and it's still working through bottlenecks like anti cheat softwares and unsupported games.

I can see steam deck hitting 5 - 10 million sales before it's done and wow is that beyond my expectations. Best part is that everyone I show my deck to (lol) is completely enamored with it... Valve has a weiner, er I mean winner here....

The Steam Deck has been popular over the past year, and an analyst from Omdia (a sibling company under Informa Tech) believes it's about to crack 3.5 million global sales. In a report focused on Valve's handheld, James McWhirter predicted it can crack that milestone by the end of 2023.

For reference, McWhirter found that the Steam Deck sold 1.6 million worldwide units in 2022, so that 3.5 million would be a 14 percent increase. That number may not be too surprising, since Valve outright said multiple times that it was producing and shipping Decks at a fast rate and easily getting through reservation queues.

He further speculated that SteamOS will be made available to the public sometime this year. If true, Valve would be able to use the Steam Deck and other portable PCs to "open the door to a new PC gaming product category."

Even so, he acknowledged that the device itself is "a niche portion" of the PC games space, especially since it lacks a proper retail presence. The only way to buy a Steam Deck is through Valve, whereas a PlayStation 5 or Nintendo Switch could be bought through Amazon or Best Buy.

That said, McWhirter remarked that it was "unlikely to be an area of concern in the short term."

McWhirter was certain that Valve "has plans beyond just selling hardware units."

Part of that may be distancing itself from Windows as much as possible, since SteamOS lets the company translate "a large portion" of Steam's games away from Microsoft's operating system.

Last year, Valve made Steam playable on Chromebooks and some Tesla cars, supporting the idea of making Steam as standalone as possible.

The Deck can be for PC what the Nintendo Switch was for consoles, continued McWhirter, though it'll take some time. As he noted, the Deck is currently meant to appeal to the most dedicated of Steam users, rather than the average person in the way that the Switch does.

It also needs a way to support extremely popular titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and FIFA 23. Both of those games have anti-cheat solutions that are out of Valve's hands and as such, leave them currently unsupported on the handheld.

Even so, it seems likely that it can reach that 3 million sales number before 2023 ends, thanks to factors like word of mouth and the promise of playing one's entire Steam library on the go.

Those are good numbers.

Switch is a waste of time, upgrade your life.

It's certainly been improved upon.... And golly it sure feels good to not pay for online play and 10x the price on games... Oh and I get to keep those games when the next steam deck drops. Nintendo will always garner their fans, but steam deck is blowing it out of the water in so many areas.

This is indeed incredibly sad.

Not bad and it is a really cool piece of hardware but in order for it to really have an impact it needs to be readily available on store shelves.

Maybe we like being hit. Maybe THAT’S the attraction. Well that and some of the games are pretty good. That helps…

Love mine. Windows can be finicky on the system, as sometimes it'll recognize the deck as a steam controller, as opposed to a steam deck. It was frustrating in FF9, but the Memoria patch fixed it and allowed me to use the analog for movement instead of the d-pad.

BTW, also well worth investing in a power bank for the system.

Great to see and hopefully it continues. I count myself amongst the 3million now. Great bit of kit. Valve have also done great things with Steam OS.

I don't use mine for big AAA blockbuster games. i think the most demanding games i play on it are F1 2020 and Battletech and it can play those no bother. I love using a handheld for racing games, turn based strategy and 2D games. Also farming sims and some RPGs.

More competitors are also entering the market which is great to see. More choice is always welcome. I do wonder though if they are all making the same mistake Sega and Sony made (amongst others) in the handheld console space. They think the decks specs are a weakness and keep attacking it with 1000+ devices. They should maybe think more outside the box. The thing is even the most crap tier PC hardware, the most decrepit of SOCs, can still play an absolute metric crap ton of games.

The deck is not perfect. It's big. The battery life is not great. The fan can get obnoxious. A smaller, more basic deck with a better battery life may see more success than the 1000+ models.

Anywho that's a bit off topic: Here is to the deck. It wasn't the first handheld gaming PC but it is currently the best execution of the idea AND it's helping to improve gaming on linux too which is always great.

On a side note: it also has given some insight into why Nintendo made the decisions they made regarding the specs on the switch. If they had let the tegra off the leash and run at full clocks then MAN the switch would have been a pain. It's battery life would have been woeful and the noise.....have you ever heard a switches fan go full blast? imagine that....constantly. ugh.

If it helps get console players into PC gaming agriculture then that's great for Steam Deck helping those who don't want to build/buy prebuilt PC desktops. I'm happy that the Steam Deck is selling well beyond Valve's expectations.

Although an OLED would be a nice-inch upgrade, but I think Valve is wise to save that for a Steam Deck successor.

Some of us buy Nintendo consoles just to play exclusives and are not used for anything else. That's all the good is Switch for. I still use my Switch whenever I'm out of the house anyway.

If this was Nintendo, 3 million would be considered a flop, let’s be honest.

Nice to hear. Also love my Deck.

Nice. Hands down, it's the best new system of the gen.

@TheEroica: hmm I'm conflicted.

1) sheep are rekkd. Deck is coming for the sheep

2) lol at steamOS. It's garbage. Valve and fatty Saint Gabriel (gabe) are getting uppity. MS will slap them with their own handheld, which I will buy day one. I'll tell you something, try running your EGS library or gamepass library on the deck. It's not possible without installing windows

@blaznwiipspman1: you keep saying "lol sheep recked" in every thread, but we both know that you're a sheep since the early 2000's. You're wrecking yourself, which isn't surprising, that's why you invested into NFT's afterall.

Only 3 million, that’s about the worst start of any console. This thing needs a price cut, barely anyone is buying it.

@hardwenzen: this is 2023, not 2003. Times change. I still have a soft spot for Nintendo, but they need competition. Otherwise we will continue seeing amazing games like metroid and Zelda restricted by potato level hardware.

It's funny how you're defending sheep though. Did hell freeze??

@mesome713: this is the fastest selling non Nintendo handheld since the original psp. I guess people got sick of Nintendo constant bs. Bu but oled.

You never lose the sheep stink. You were a sheep 20 years ago. You're a sheep in 2023.

@hardwenzen: Xbox >> switch >>>>>> turd left in the sun too long >>> ps5.

What you meant to say is NFT's>Switch>Xbox>PS5.

Always close to pulling trigger on this, then I remember I dont like handheld gaming.

?? What is the point you're making? Are they not entirely positioned differently?

All things considered at least Valve isn't having to damage control psvr2 numbers as they are currently 10x less than steam deck numbers...

1. Who said it's "coming for the sheep?" it's a more functional and better featured handheld and is capable of far more than switch. That part is very true... Nintendo has a fan base for a reason but both are on complete ends of the spectrum in terms of exposure and market aim. Let's keep things in context.

2. Unless Microsoft shows the handheld you just dreamed up I can only stick with reality and that is that valve made the best affordable handheld ever made and it launched with thousands of games. I've had my deck since February/March of last year and I don't even bother with windows and Gamepass etc... Steam on its own has a billion games and more being verified each week. Community support is awesome and steam has been incredible with updates.

@TheEroica:

My biggest problem with the Deck is the lack of physical copies for said games and that's where the Switch beats it in spades. I'm not 100% thrilled about every game I buy being digital only. For handhelds, that's a big part of the draw. I can pop in a physical copy of a game, save space and get to boot it up immediately.

Wow.... That is the first time I've heard someone say they'd rather have games locked to a system and have the publisher sell you the same games every generation as opposed to keeping your games for the rest of time no matter what device you choose.... Color me confused.....

It's not a console, it's a PC.

@TheEroica:

On the assumption that Valve never goes under sure, you keep those games. Some people also prefer physical over digital. I believe other folks made this argument before too. Digital rights isn't the same as infinite access.

I mean no offense but I've left those anxieties a long time ago. Valve is super healthy and access trumps ownership of physical media for me. I spent years saving games I never played again and who's hardware retired. Gaming would have to hit a nightmare scenario for alllll that old media to be relevant in our modern day. Basically the industry would have to entirely crash for me to go, "I'm so glad I saved those 4 closets of games to play on hardware I don't own anymore".

For me, I just want to have access... I turned on my Steam deck and 200 games ive paid for show up and say, "download me".... That's perfect from my pov.

It's still shit, but this is less shit...

Supposed to be twice the performance and the screen is 1080p/120hz.

And twice the price.... But really glad to see you're coming around 🤘😉🤘

@TheEroica: Haha, I am not a portable gamer, but the Asus ROG Ally is certainly more appealing to me. The less potato, the better. :)

@TheEroica:

Yeah, it's pretty much a minor comfort at this point. But it's also a detail that separates the Steam Deck from the Switch. It's clearly more powerful than the Switch and has more compatible games but it's not much of a collectible as the Switch. Some console gamers like me, actually love novelty plastic crap that clutters attics and basements.

To me, I never felt like exclusives locked me out of anything. It just gave me an incentive to buy more consoles. The UI, the controllers, the feel and smell of the plastic cases...that's a big part of console gaming....collecting. And the fact that everything in the Steam Deck is digital, it makes it feel less special to me.

I'm still going to buy a Steam Deck eventually though. But I first need to catch up on the PS5/Xbox. Mainly for Halo though and I'll probably love it but I think I could have loved it more if it had physical releases of its games.

😂

Even still, would take way more than Valve shutting down or an industry crash. As long as there's an internet, all of these games exist and are accessible.

From where I'm sitting right now, can access way more games than a person could ever hope to physically. Including games that are no longer sold, or sold second hand for ridiculous prices.

I understand peoples preference for physical, no issue with that of course. Just the argument that physical is somehow better for things like preservation and accessibility? Nah. Unless you're riding out a nuclear winter in a bunker full of games or some shit, just isn't true.

Now we know when the nuclear winter hits, you won't have any games to play.

Indeed. 😔

The shame when someone like Solid proudly shouts from his bunker "physical FTW!"

Time to go the prepper route, but stockpiling hard drives of games instead of canned goods n ammo.

@ConanTheStoner:

Sounds like a guy on the Pinside forums who was asking about keeping pinball machines after a nuclear war. Hmmm... How about having no pinball machines? No nothing.

😂

I respect those priorities.

Survival, meh. Pinball, oh yeah!

I bought mine during the 1 year anniversary sale. Quite liking it.

Tried about 12 games on it I think. The verified ones have worked perfectly. A couple of unverified ones too.. including an EA Launcher game.

2 games i had to spend some time tinkering with controls. The only one that outright doesn't work was GTA Vice City. The only other issue was that for 2 older unverified games it didn't copy existing saves from the cloud(Tbh a non issue in this case since I wanted to start from scratch... but in other cases it would be)

Switch will be collecting dust once I finish with MP Remastered.

@SolidGame_basic: Pretty much. But this is sold in one storefront. Can't buy a Deck at Walmart or GameStop.

And no physical game options. That too sucks.

Glad this is doing well. I could see myself getting one one in a few years if they make it smaller and with a better battery.

Too bad the Steam Deck will never be released here in Australia. Might as well just wait for the Asus ROG Ally so I can use that as my first handheld gaming PC.

Congrats to that team. Steam Deck is a helluva piece of kit.

Truly mobile gaming with the flexibility of a PC is insane.

Dunno, the Deck is simply not good enough. Too many flaws to be considered as a good system.

If the Asus ROG Ally is anything under $1200, I'll be trading in my Deck for one. Double the power and the ability to play ALL of my games along with Game Pass? Count me in.

Fantastic, here's to 4 million! Can't wait to see what further improvments they do to the software.

@nintendoboy16:

The lack of physical games is a big reason why the Deck isn't selling as much as the Switch. It looks like a console at face value but it lacks the presence of a collector's item. That presence relies heavily on a physical library. The Deck focuses too much on convenience, which is mostly ok with pc gamers but not for all console gamers.

It's a fair point.

I buy most of my games on switch physical. It's nice to be able to have the option to re sell a product once you are finished with it. Steam deck is a digital only console as is PC gaming. If you like to collect, trade, sell games, steam deck might not be for them.

It's amazing that people underestimate the staying power of physical media, especially when not all internet is up to snuff.

I even remember downplaying why a lot of people still buy physical for the Switch just because Nintendo's online infrastructure sucks. Like... wha?