PC Handelds Have Sold Under 6 Million Units In 3 Years

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

“So here are the estimated combined shipments of the Steam Deck, and the Windows-based Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw from 2022 through 2024, and an estimate for 2025:

Add it up, and that’s just under 6 million shipments in three years. One way to view that: it’s small and it’s not really growing. IDC’s forecasting under 2 million shipments in 2025, rather than any major expansion.

With as few as 2 million Windows handhelds shipping in two years, it’s not a huge surprise that AMD and Intel aren’t spending big on more custom chips like the one that’s still working perfectly well for the Steam Deck“

But out of those 6 million shipments, the lion's share have been the Steam Deck itself, according to IDC's estimates. All of the 2022 shipments are the Steam Deck, and Ward tells me upwards of 50 percent of the 2023 shipments and 48 percent of the 2024 shipments are the Deck as well. Doing the math, Valve has now shipped upwards of 3.7 million Steam Decks and has quite possibly crossed 4 million by now.“

My new handheld arrived just now!

Super excited to start Donkey Kong Country 2&3 on here, after finishing DKC 1 on my SP

Too bad.

Guess people enjoy overpaying for Switch games

I think this is why MS wants to make a handheld.

Steam Deck shows there is a market for it, but people who buy a handheld also want a Switch-like experience.

Steam Deck gets close to that, but is limited by Linux and needing to use steam.

ROG Ally (even though I love it) takes a ton of tweaking. I cant count how many times my boys have complained that Fortnite won't go full screen, or the frame rate is "glitching" (they think low fps is glitching).

If PC gaming is to have a handheld, it needs to be more "take and play" like switch or traditional handhelds.

These things are a companion to the way PC gamers play games and not marketed well. That said it's impressive that Steam Deck is clobbering the others who are available at retail at multiple vendors, while Steam Deck is order only from Valve.

That's how Valve keeps costs down.

Retailers take their cut of all hardware sold, AND they charge for shelf space.

Steam Deck is also cheaper. If it ran windows well, I think I would have one for myself (and my boys)

Not too shabby at all. Most PC manufacturers would kill to have a specific SKU ship in the millions. It will be interesting to see if it expands any further. But most of the competition seems to be focusing on the 800-1000 price point. That's a lot for a portable gaming device so they are more than likely going to remain fairly niche. If someone could get one out at 249....that could turn more heads. Releasing new models every year probably isn't a great idea either to be honest.

However comparing these sales to consoles and claiming "failure" is nonsense. These devices are PCs and their only selling point is playing PC games on the go. If that doesn't appeal to someone then they have no reason to pick up the device. There are no exclusives. No one is making Deck games or Portable PC handheld games. The device has to compete against desktops and laptops directly and they can only do it on that 1 merit. But again: the mark of success for these devices is also not "beat the switch". Do they make money? If yes then happy days.

That all depends on Windows improving for that type of use case. I mean it runs as well as Windows can run. Hopefully they will keep working on Windows, they said they're revealing more on that later this year.

Definitely agree.

Right now, there are "skinny" installations of windows that allow custom software to be layered on top, kind of how Google allows Android to be reskinned and features added.

The problem is, as you said, Windows does not have proper support for low powered devices other than their crappy (and limited) tablet version.

Hopefully with their handheld they actually release the tools to allow others to make their own "windows" like Samsung makes their One UI that is far better than the stock Android

@navyguy21: Nobody's able to sell products with modified versions of Windows without Microsoft's permission, they have guidelines for how it can be configured. With Android you can change out anything you want and even remove all the Google stuff and do your own thing instead.

With Windows, OEMs will still be reliant on Microsoft to make the required changes and fixes. Microsoft will have to come up with a certain configuration but it will likely include their own stuff in a mandatory prominent position and won't be completely customizable. I'm not sure how much MS will allow others to do.

Agreed, and I think its also why we didn't/don't see more windows-based phones and tablets outside of MS making their own

The mobile OS needs to be free and customizable for it to gain any traction.

Quick correction: Google does charge device manufacturers a (relatively small) fee to include Play Store and other google apps. There is a free tier that doesn't include Play Store, however.

@navyguy21: Yeah but they aren't forced to include Play Store at least. They could ignore all of Google's requirements completely and customize the OS completely, like /e/ does. If that was possible with Windows we would probably have a lot of advancements right now for this type of device and other custom use cases.

Valve have alot of money that they are more experiments than revenue they need.

PC Handhelds is still niche, while powerful APU's have come a long way to optimize games from low to medium settings, Windows bottlenecks performance compared to SteamOS. Another issue is battery, which x86 processors drain more a long with Windows. If Valve can get a Snapdragon to work on SteamOS, and great optimize performance, a long with proton to translate x86 to ARM, then Valve can create a great handheld with the best battery life available.

Agreed.

Hopefully MS is paying attention.

Phil Spencer has talked about the need to windows to be easier to use in general, but especially for mobile devices.

Shame on MS for still not having a solution in 2025. They shouldve jumped on this with the ANNOUNCEMENT of Steam Deck, maybe ROG Ally and these other devices would be more appealing.

I love the Ally because I like to tinker, but my 8year old doesnt.

@navyguy21: I agree. It would be nice to have some stronger competition here. Steam OS exists but it's also slow to get to third parties and Valve doesn't seem interested in making a big push. At least something happened at all in this space though!

I'm cool with my jailbroken Vita. Ez pass on PC handhelds

I own one, and it's awesome...

Pretty good given that:

• PC gaming isn't really mobile-focused (like Switch)
• These platforms aren't really marketed as widely as others
• Are generally viewed as accessories to a dedicated desktop or laptop setup, not as standalone gaming systems (though they certainly can be that!).
• Mobile PC gaming has to compete with Switch and Phone gaming, two relative titans.

So yeah, all things considered, I'd say 6 million units is pretty damn impressive!

@R4gn4r0k: allow me to say, that’s a very neat console.

Well, the numbers don't lie. It turns out to be a niche product between the the Nokia N-Gage (3M) and the Game Gear (10M). It's not even close to the PSVITA (est. 13M), let alone the Switch (150M). In the end, it just seems like a product that a small number of vocal fanboys hyped up (but didn't even buy) and failed to reach a wider audience.

Valve stole the Switch's hybrid concept and built the Steam Deck, but what they couldn't steal was Nintendo's audience of handheld gamers, which Nintendo has been cultivating for decades since the late '80s.

According to Nintendo, one of the reasons the Switch was such a hit is that it combined regular console gamers (from NES to Wii U) with handheld gamers (from GB to 3DS). But Valve didn't get it - they just stole the superficial hardware. They didn't have the handheld gamers to begin with, and they're missing out on the avid PC gamers for high-end spec hardware.

The funniest thing is that there are also rumors that MS is trying to steal the concept of this failed hardware. I expect it to be even more disastrous than the Steam Deck for the same reason, haha.

Gensis Nomad predates the Switch.

The Steam Deck doesn't try to be a Switch, it is a handheld PC and that concept also predates the Switch.

Ah, the Sega Nomad got a mention! That thing would eat through 6 AA batteries in no time. It was technically a handheld, but you could never be too far away from an outlet lol. Sega was always my favorite. Their hardware was always so fun.

@ghostofgolden: never experienced this precious gem of a handheld. I wish I knew it existed when it was available.

Unlike the original Game Boy, the Nomad was a color handheld system which is why it had a short battery life. There is a reason why Nintendo designed the Game Boy without a color screen and because of that, it succeeded, but the Nomad was considered a failure.

As someone who started gaming in the early 1980s, it has been a privilege to see advancements in gaming technology from the pre-crash era to the present.

It's neat, very pocketable. It's basically an Anbernic RG35xx but with a better screen, slimmer body and more premium finish.

I was playing the Lion King on it yesterday after watching Mufasa this weekend.

The 90s gave us so many amazing Disney games!

Switch 2 is dooomed confirmed.