Valve Corporation’s Steam Deck has achieved a considerable milestone in the gaming world. A recent assessment reveals that the handheld gaming device has now surpassed the 15,000 mark in terms of compatible games. The news comes a few months after we last checked in on the device’s progress, while a similar achievement dates back nearly a year.
According to SteamDB, a reliable source we have consistently used for tracking the device’s progress since its inception, the Steam Deck now has over 15,000 compatible games. This data has been instrumental in announcing when the device hit the 1,000, 2,000, 2,500, 5,000, 10,000, and 12,000 compatible games milestones, and now, we are doing the same for the 15,000 games mark.
However, more interesting than the sheer number of compatible games is the journey that the Steam Deck has undergone to reach this milestone. It’s worth noting that the console was launched on March 1, 2022, and within six months, it already had 5,000 compatible titles. Reaching 10,000 compatible games required an additional four months, and to hit the current 15,000 mark, it has taken almost eleven months.
It is significant to note that the Steam Deck runs on a Linux-based operating system, although most of its game catalog comes from Windows games. Furthermore, there are more Linux games available on Steam than the Steam Deck can claim due to Valve’s quality control policies. In other words, the potential catalog of the Steam Deck extends beyond the current 15,000 titles.
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Valve’s policy includes explicit testing of each game, which is then labeled as incompatible, playable, or verified. The latter two categories include games compatible with the console per Valve’s criteria: playable games work well, even though they may have some bugs or may not be perfectly adapted to the device’s screen and controls; verified games, besides working correctly, are optimized to offer the best experience on the Steam Deck.
The specific figures, according to SteamDB, are as follows:
- 4,926 verified games.
- 10,142 playable games.
- 4,217 incompatible games.
Interestingly, initial data from SteamDB indicated that there were more verified titles than playable ones, but that trend shifted as the catalog expanded. Nevertheless, this is far from being a problem, as the Steam Deck can boast a compatibility that encompasses 70 out of the 100 most popular games on Steam. Quite an impressive benchmark.
However, the most noteworthy aspect is not the quantity, but the quality of the titles available to Steam Deck users. In this respect, there’s not much room for complaint, as many of the major recent games achieve a high level of compatibility with the console in record time.
