How much do you think the Steam Deck will sell lifetime? (Bet inside)

[Jizz_Beard_thePirate]

The problem with this is that Steam Deck isn't a traditional handheld... It's a PC. And because of that and it's been confirmed by Valve that Steam Deck will have a successor sooner than later like every other PC hardware. The Steam Deck isn't something that will have the same hardware for 5-7 years but rather a product that will get iterations relatively frequently compared to consoles. So most likely, at the latest, we will have a Steam Deck 2 in 2024 imo because there's new PC hardware revision every 2-3 years. That is not to say it won't be supported for long though because remember... It's a PC and in terms of software/games support, PCs have a long lifespan.

Then you combine that with the fact that Steam Deck is only being sold through Steam and not consumer facing stores like Bestbuy and such along with limited regions (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong only started reservations last month). Then you have the manufacturing capacity of Valve being significantly lower than console companies because this is the first time they had a hardware device being this successful.

So the amount of sales should be fairly low. Most likely, 5 million but I wouldn't be surprised if it's lower. But this isn't a failure that some might suggest it would be because the sales have already exceeded expectations from what Valve was expecting. I do think as they continue reiterating with Steam Deck 2 and such, the sales figures will continue to grow gen on gen.