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Forums - Sales Discussion - IDC estimate Steam Deck has sold ~4 million units, total handheld PC market 6 million

Roughly three years after its release in 2022, research firm IDC estimates that Steam Deck has shipped approximately 4 million units, with other PC handhelds like the ROG Ally, MSI Claw, and Lenovo Legion Go shifting another 2 million combined.

https://www.theverge.com/pc-gaming/618709/steam-deck-3-year-anniversary-handheld-gaming-shipments-idc



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Seems in line with general estimates I've seen. The SD has been a nice starting point and the SD 2 has growth potential if Valve handles it right. Over 10 million for that would be a nice result and should be doable I think since with it probably comparing decently well to a PS5 and Series X should be powerful enough to run basically everything from this decade and most games in the first half of next decade so it'll age significantly better. The other options have a lot of catching up to do in terms of relevance though.



I'd say that's pretty good considering there's basically no marketing and it's not being sold at retail.



Early SteamDeck estimates were laughably high, and I wanted to believe them for a while lol.

But this is way worse still than my adjusted expectations. The internet would have you believe SteamDeck is the shit and no one wanted a Playstation Portal, and yet the latter (an expensive accessory) might be catching up already. Yeah yeah, different prices and everything... but still crazy to me.

I don't have a SteamDeck because I don't care about portability. But the game library of this thing is unmatched by any console. Shows how important exclusives are.



I remember a thread about how the Steam Deck was going to make the Switch obsolete...



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Crap sales are crap sales. 



Steam Deck has been one of the best pieces of tech that's released in a long time! I still use it very often.

To think Valve just shadow dropped such an innovate piece of hardware with little to no marketing that was supposedly a pet project for years and made it exclusive to buy only on their storefront rather than through traditional retail stores.

PSA for those thinking these sales are "bad".....Valve doesn't give a crap lol. They never had any sort of intention to compete with anybody. They literally put out a piece of hardware for those who want it just for shits and giggles.



You called down the thunder, now reap the whirlwind

It's a great system and fairly successful for what it is. But it's surprisingly unpopular given the internet hype and the excellent game library. Whether or not Valve and fans care is beside the point. At this rate it won't even come close to Vita lol.

It's easy to see that it's an amazing system, but 99% of gamers are happy with their consoles and traditional PC's. I'm honestly shocked with how little interest portable PC's are generating in the real world so far, and am less confident than before about Microsoft and Sony releasing their own "ConsoleDecks" earlier than 2030.



PC handhelds have had massive advantages over the Switch in specs, the ability to play every Switch game for free on PC handhelds for years. Switch 2 will just end most of those advantages day 1. Valve even used emulation of Switch games as part of their marketing for the Steam deck, to minimal success. Third party developers skip Switch but does everything to cater to Steam deck by bigging up their games as ''Steam deck verified'', like Square Enix did with Rebirth. Everyone has invested massive amounts in PC handhelds dethroning Switch, to no success.

Last edited by Sephiran - on 26 February 2025

G2ThaUNiT said:

Steam Deck has been one of the best pieces of tech that's released in a long time! I still use it very often.

To think Valve just shadow dropped such an innovate piece of hardware with little to no marketing that was supposedly a pet project for years and made it exclusive to buy only on their storefront rather than through traditional retail stores.

PSA for those thinking these sales are "bad".....Valve doesn't give a crap lol. They never had any sort of intention to compete with anybody. They literally put out a piece of hardware for those who want it just for shits and giggles.

Hopefully they will release Half-Life 3 for shits and giggles soon...