There’s a story doing the rounds about how Steam Deck sales have cratered in recent times, courtesy of the team at Boiling Steam looking at data and crunching numbers.
There’s plenty of reaction out there, but honestly, what did anyone expect? I love my Steam Deck and I will defend it to the hilt, but at this point in time, nobody should be buying one anyway. And no, this isn’t some thin attempt at selling the virtues of a Windows 11 handheld gaming PC instead.
Just look at where we are. The Steam Deck is nearly four and a half years old, it hasn’t had any performance upgrades despite a newer version of its APU and an OLED display, and the AI-induced RAMpocalypse means it’s more expensive than it ever was.
Speaking with a sensible head, the same applies to the Steam Deck as it does to the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, each of which is also more expensive towards the end of their product cycles than when they begin. Don’t buy one, definitely not at full price.
As such, it’s no surprise to see Steam Deck sales are slowing. The cheapest model available is now $789/£649, a significant increase on the launch prices. Admittedly, there is now only the upgraded OLED model, and the base storage is 512GB, but it’s still substantially more expensive than it once was.
I was lucky to get my 256GB Steam Deck LCD in the first few batches back in 2022 and paid £459. For a device that doesn’t perform any better in games, which is ultimately what matters most, the new prices just don’t make any sense.
It makes even less sense when you consider that Valve has opened up SteamOS to be installed on other handhelds. The base Xbox Ally is currently $599, with a better APU, a higher refresh rate display, and the same storage/RAM combination, while costing almost $200 less. If you were eying up a 1TB Steam Deck, you’d be better off getting the Xbox Ally X, which is far more powerful and only $50 more expensive.
I appreciate what Valve has done with the Steam Deck; after all, it really kicked off the handheld gaming PC category as we know it today. It’s a phenomenal device, and I’ve had zero regrets. I think SteamOS is still a superior handheld experience, too, with only anticheat holding it back.
But we can’t look at the situation right now and lament falling sales, because it should be happening. It’s four years into its cycle, it’s been usurped handily by others in the performance stakes, and it’s just too expensive.
We should appreciate it for what it is and what it’s done. But if you want a somewhat affordable handheld gaming PC right now, the Xbox Ally is the smart choice. Then throw SteamOS on it if you want; I know I’d be tempted to.
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