As the Steam Deck turns three years old, and many of us laud its praises for allowing accessible PC gaming on-the-go, market research firm IDC has estimated that the handheld console has shifted roughly around 4 million units since its arrival in February 2022.
The Verge spoke to the IDC, which uses supply chains to estimate the amount of gaming systems have been shifted worldwide in order to create spending forecasts (via Push Square). According to IDC, roughly 6 million handheld units — which includes the Lenovo Legion Go and Asus ROG Ally, among others — have been sold, not consoles such as the Ayaneo or GPD, which are manufactured in China.
But it’s the Steam Deck that’s dominating, shifting well in excess of 50% of all handheld PC units. But, as you can see, it’s still a ways behind the Switch. We know 151 million Switches isn’t a fair comparison, but to anyone concerned about Steam Deck competing with Switch 2, this might allay some fears.
For one, the Steam Deck is only available to buy officially though Valve’s own storefront. If you do find one out in the wild or on another online store, then they’re either second-hand or refurbished consoles. It’s a relatively niche market, and you also need to have a Steam profile and a bunch of digital games to even have a use for it.
Given that you can walk into a brick-and-mortar store and pick up a brand new Switch, or even PS5 or Xbox Series, at almost any point, the big gap in sales seems obvious. You can also, however, walk into a store and buy some of those other competitor handhelds.
Crucially, whenever the Switch 2 launches, you’ll either have it delivered to your door on the day, or be able to walk into a store and pick one up — hopefully, anyway. Nintendo has stated that it has learned from its mistakes with Switch 1 and will have enough units to meet demands — and deal with scalpers.
Back to PCs for a moment, though; according to the IDC, handheld PC consoles came in at under 1.5 million units, down almost half from 2023, where they sold a combined 2.867 million units. The IDC estimates that handheld PCs will bounce back and sell closer to 2 million this year, however.
Researches, have predicted that as long as Switch 2 can meet demand, the console is expected to sell between 15-17 million units in 2025. Much more than 2 million, then.
As our friends at Push Square have pointed out, those roughly 4 million Steam Deck sales put it at around a third of the PS Vita’s lifetime total. It’s sold more than the N-Gage ever did, and even though it’s short of the Game Gear’s 10 million units right now, it still has a lot of life left in it — even in a niche-ish market.
Some of us here at Nintendo Life have both a Switch and a Steam Deck. You can’t get Hades II on Switch, after all. But you also can’t get Tears of the Kingdom on Steam Deck.
Both consoles have their merits, and as the Switch 2 looms, and a potential ‘Handheld War’ approaching as Sony and Microsoft weigh up their options, it’ll be interesting to see where these consoles are in a few years time.
