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.
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?
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.
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!
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.