If you’re new to the subject, the headline might seem a bit odd, if not counterintuitive. However, the truth is that Steam and Steam Deck are not the same, and for this very reason the information we offer you is of special interest and very positive…for Valve and especially for users of its particular console.

As you know, Valve is the company behind the most popular PC game store on the internet, Steam, as well as the company behind the Steam Deck, a double hybrid console, because it’s still a PC that, in the style of the Nintendo Switch, allows you to play in portable mode or by connecting the device to external screen. Nothing you don’t know bears repeating. And assuming things are, the experiment went well for Valve, which is already working on more.

In fact, the latest Steam Deck news revolves around the new Steam Deck OLED, a refresh of the console – again in true Nintendo Switch fashion – that it comes out today with improvements in many ways, while Valve engineers continue to refine the concept for a future successor that will not arrive soon because of the rush: neither Valve is dependent on the Steam Deck, nor the Steam Deck shows much wear and tear, no matter how much the competition heats up .

Steam Deck OLED

How do you measure the success and health of the Steam Deck? This can be done in a number of ways: by selling products, although Valve doesn’t go into much detail about this; with acceptance in communities; and also with the range of content it has, in quantity, but mainly in quality. First, we recently had an update: the console catalog powers over 12,000 compatible games.

At this point, we have to point out what is specific about Steam Deck in this regard, and that of all the games available on Steam, almost 100,000, those that are considered compatible with Steam Deck are divided into two groups: verified, those that, in addition to working properly, are and are customized to offer the best experience on Steam Deck; and playable, games that work well but may have some bugs or may not be well adapted to the device’s screen and controls.

All of them, the verified ones and the playable ones, have been verified by the community, as in this regard Valve is stricter on the quality of what it recommends for its console. And to them are added the incompatible ones, games that are known not to work. But… why aren’t they all compatible? Because Steam Deck is based on Linux and not Windows. That’s the peculiarity of this console and the positive aspects of the figures that accompany it.

Steam Deck verified, more info here

Steam Deck is based on Linux, although when it comes to game compatibility, this is not a determining factor, since the device is supported by components – which Valve is actively involved in the development of – that make it easier to run Windows games. This is the big benefit of the Steam Deck and why the console is able to run the most popular games on the platform, whether they have a Linux version or not.

And so we get to the current news: 70 of the top 100 games on Steam are available for Steam Deck. They discover the data in Boiling Steam, and if we don’t develop it here, it’s because they worked hard enough to make it worth a visit: they include tables, titles, comparisons with previous years, analyze the trend. .

If anything, some numbers, since we discussed the peculiarities of games compatible with Steam Deck: of the hundred most popular games, 29 are verified, 37 are playable, 5 are pending review, and 28 are not compatible (the last one is in contention). As for titles, two compelling examples: Baldur’s Gate 3 is verified while star field is not compatible. Otherwise, the list contains a little bit of everything and a lot in general.