The Steam Deck is rising from power to power. Valve’s lately launched Steam 12 months in Overview for 2024 revealed that, from a {hardware} perspective, the Steam Deck is proving to be a significant success for the corporate, with an enormous 64% improve in playtime hours on the hand held gaming PC in comparison with the 12 months earlier than.
It’s no shock to see the Steam Deck grow to be such a useful asset for avid gamers – it’s kickstarted a completely new ecosystem for PC avid gamers. You possibly can’t take into account the perfect gaming handheld PCs with out fascinated by this explicit Valve handheld, and with SteamOS now launching on different third-party handhelds, the corporate’s grasp on the complete market is rising ever stronger.
In its 2024 12 months in Overview put up, Valve explains simply how massive of successful the Steam Deck has been for the corporate to this point. In line with Valve, avid gamers spent 330 million hours taking part in video games on a Steam Deck in 2024, 64% greater than 2023, due to numerous big releases that suited the console, with Balatro and Black Delusion Wukong talked about.
Valve additionally factors out the function of Linux within the success of the Steam Deck, with the regularly-improved Proton compatibility layer making it simpler to play Home windows-only video games on the platform. Whereas Home windows 11-powered handhelds just like the Asus ROG Ally X have higher {hardware}, the simplicity of SteamOS arguably makes it the higher working system for handheld gaming, no less than for the second.
That’s unhealthy information for Microsoft. Valve’s success with the Steam Deck and SteamOS signifies that the possibility of Linux toppling Home windows 11 as the perfect platform for gaming doesn’t appear as farfetched lately, even when there’s nonetheless an extended approach to go. If Valve can proceed to dominate the hand held gaming market, both by the Steam Deck or SteamOS on different handhelds, Microsoft will want a giant success with its rumored Xbox handheld to have the ability to reply.
Optimistically, this competitors results in higher handhelds with a good wider collection of playable video games for avid gamers. Till then, you’ll be able to take a look at our Steam Deck OLED overview subsequent for our ideas on the perfect handheld you should buy proper now.
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