It’s silly to compare Switch 2 sales to Steam Deck sales.
The Switch 2 is a locked-down, vertically integrated platform. There are no ROG Switch 2s. No Lenovo Switch 2s. No Switch laptops or tower PCs with discrete GPUs. If you want to play Mario Kart World, your only option is to buy a Switch 2. Period.
Steam Deck, by contrast, isn’t a platform. It’s just one hardware option—one entry point into the sprawling, open ecosystem known as PC gaming.
Every year, around 245 million PCs are shipped globally. If even 20–25% of those are gaming-focused, that’s 49–61 million gaming PCs annually. Steam Deck is a sliver of that. So of course it won’t outsell a console that’s the only gateway to a major IP.
But that’s exactly the point.
PC gaming is too decentralized for any single device to dominate. The last “PC” that did was the Commodore 64, which sold 12.5–17 million units over 12 years because it was a self-contained platform, unlike modern Windows, Mac, or Linux machines.
That the Steam Deck has sold 4 million units despite competing with every other gaming PC in existence is remarkable. It didn’t just sell—it legitimized a category. Handheld PC gaming is now a thing. That’s why Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI have followed. Even Microsoft is getting in, optimizing Windows for handhelds—something they would never have done if the Steam Deck didn’t hold their feet to the fire.
So no, Steam Deck didn’t outsell the Switch 2. It didn’t need to.
It won by changing the landscape.
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I’ll emulate Nintendo games till the day I die because fuck Nintendo and their greed.
I won’t even pirate their games
They make great games and they’re a super anti-consumer company. Perfect combination for going out of your way to pirate their games.
Meh, personally I haven’t enjoyed a Nintendo game since the GameCube. Every new game they release feels like a rehash of the same shit they’ve been shoveling down our throats since the Wii. Nintendo forgot how to innovate.
BotW and TotK were both really good. Don’t mistake this as me saying “Nintendo is good actually”, more like a broken clock is right twice a day sort of statement.
Personally I thought botw was pretty mid overall. The world is so empty and there’s no reason to really ever fight anything for the most part. The weapons breaking so easily just cements that. Haven’t played the second tho.
There’s not a reason to fight most enemies in most video games to be honest. TotK mostly fixed the weapon breaking mechanic in my eyes. They’re much more durable now and last longer when fused (there is generally no reason to not do fusion). The only thing that’s more fun in BotW than TotK is riding a horse through Hyrule field while dodging tons of guardian lasers.
There’s not a reason to fight most enemies in most video games to be honest.
Hmmmm… that’s a thinker.
In the older zeldas, you didn’t especially need to fight stuff on the overworld. I’d usually just run by, or kill the ones that were in my way.
In most FromSoft games, you can run past enemies but that can quickly spiral out of control. Killing them gives you time to explore safely, on top of the XP rewarded.
In shooters like Doom, you could probably run past most enemies, but they’ll keep attacking. Clearing them makes you safer.
Monster hunter it’s the whole point of the game.
What games are you thinking of where fighting is pointless? I don’t think it’s “most” games.
I don’t get this line of thinking… If you’re using arguments like “you can run past them but it’s safer to kill them so they stop attacking” how does that not apply to BotW/TotK? Obviously some eneny camps you ignore because they’re irrelevant, it is an open world game after all, all open world games are like that (many learned the hard way why you should ignore giants in Skyrim lol). But in areas where you’re trying to accomplish something, you “need” to kill them because they’re attacking. That’s still true.
You can’t say “I dislike the game because it doesn’t give me a reason to kill enemies” while saying “in Doom you don’t need to kill enemies but it’s easier if you do” when BotW/TotK are both easier if you kill enemies. And I know you’re not the one who said it, but you’re changing the context of the conversation.
Ah, I see you haven’t played undertale yet!
In Zelda One you definitely needed to kill them because there were several good items to purchase with the rupees.
BotW and TotK are by far the worst Zelda games ever made. What’s the point of having a huge open world if there’s nothing to do in it? Plus there are no real dungeons and there’s barely a plot. It honestly blows my mind that people enjoy those games. Hell, TotK was so lazily slapped together that they couldn’t even bother creating a new map.
BotW and TotK are by far the worst Zelda games ever made.
“At last, vindication!”
Yeah, I think link between worlds is probably the best of them
TotK didn’t have real dungeons? Huh? I disagree with that criticism for BotW, but I can at least understand why people say it.
But I’m not gonna get into this. I like them. They’re very popular. A certain vocal subset of the Zelda fandom hate them. A certain vocal subset of the Zelda fandom has hated a lot of more opinionated Zelda games on release only to view them more favorably later. People loathed Wind Waker on release, but now tons of people love it. I think these games will be viewed more favorably by fans long term. Yes, they’re different from the others, but not all of them need to follow the same formula. Variety is the spice of life.
For example, I really enjoyed Link’s Awakening HD.
I remember when botw came out and some time after it was cracked and you could play it in 4k 60. So i did and i was just like meh. Do i really want to collect all the same shrines in a boring world?
You only think a game is fun if you’re willing to 100% it?
It’s always morally acceptable to pirate Nintendo games.
Steam Deck is the winner, They don’t even advertise.
Console wars stopped being cool years ago. Everyone has their preferences and favorites, no need to shit on someone’s fun because you think yours is better.
Steamdeck also isn’t a console anyway, it’s a handheld PC.
it plays like a console and repairs like a pc.
How? Its a PC with a built in steam controller. You can play dwarf fortress over SSH using a keyboard, it plays like a PC.
You turn it on and boom steam library ready to launch, click buy download play just like a console. Remember most peopl just want easy use and the steam deck does that.
Yes the average steam Deck user is above average in tech literacy.
So steam is set to autorun by default?
By that reasoning my old PC in like 2008 was a console because you boot and it starts up with a list of games to play that are all loaded from Linux DVD, just click to launch any of them immediately.
Yeah ease of use, no technical skill or knowledge needed.
Its unfair to call it a “console war” when one is a classic locked down console and another is a general handheld computer. This also means there are bigger societal stakes in this argument than just “which corporate flavor you like more” because one empowers people and the other does the exact opposite.
So no, “console wars” here are very much cool.
Competition is good. If the Switch didn’t exist then I don’t think we would’ve gotten the Steam Deck.
If the Switch didn’t exist then I don’t think we would’ve gotten the Steam Deck.
or we would have earlier and more of it? I’m not sure how are you basing your hipothesis is but to assume that handheld market with this crazy demand would just be there unfulfilled is kinda silly. Switch didn’t event some magic technology that was not available before - it just took the market.
You’re contradicting yourself. If you believe the Steam Deck exists purely independently from the Switch and that we would’ve had the Steam Deck before the Switch if the Switch never existed, but we didn’t, it came after.
And no, I don’t think it invented some sort of magic technology, obviously I don’t think that. I’m saying the Steam Deck was good competition for the Switch in the portable/docked market (whatever we wanna call those).
Correlation vs causation much? Not sure what to tell you.
You’re saying if we didn’t have the Switch we would’ve had the Steam Deck earlier but you’re also saying the Steam Deck is something totally independent of the Switch. But if it was totally independent, why do you think it would’ve come earlier if the Switch didn’t exist? That’s why I’m saying you’re contradicting yourself.
I said it might have come earlier. You fundamentally don’t understand correlation vs causation and getting angry with me dude. Seriously go read a book or something this is silly.
There’s no hate for Nintendo here, just explaining why Steam Deck is different.
Sorry, should’ve clarified that this isn’t directed towards you, OP! Just at a lot of the other comments in here who are acting like someone else’s decision to buy an expensive gadget is a personal insult to them.
That is unfortunately very common, especially in the gaming world.
PC G*mers aren’t known for being with the times.
The funniest thing is that Nintendo buyers are not even part of this conversation LMAO 🤣
In a sense, this is also the point. They are different devices targeting different markets.
I loved my steam deck, but it was too chunky for me and certainly for my kid.
My compromise is Anbernic type devices. Long battery life, better form factor, lots of ported games too.
Playing with a amiga as a kid when I was at friends and got to play Nintendo I always felt like an outsider… But I didn’t realise how lucky I am that it was like that. I was exposed to so many more games, and got to tinker. Got to see many crack intros that was mesmerising to me as a kid. Soon enough I got into coding because of it… And guess if that was useful later. I’m never going to think buying a walled garden device is ok, sends the wrong message to your kids and hampers their development. Don’t take the easy way out.
Fuck yeah, the Amiga was an amazing gaming machine. We had cracked copies of damn near everything. Wings, Lemmings, Lost Vikings, Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry, Blood Money, Menace, The Killing Game Show, Woody’s World, It Came From the Desert, Bubble Bobble, Elvira, Out of this World… hit after goddamn hit.
Shit, I might need to reinstall WinUAE if that’s still a thing.
There is no value in defending a billion dollar company from another billion dollar company. Just accept Nintendo is more popular and live your life ❤️
What company do you think I’m defending?
Valve?
So no, Steam Deck didn’t outsell the Switch 2. It didn’t need to.
I don’t disagree with the sentiment. I would still consider the Steam Deck a “failure” if it couldn’t move enough units to justify its production cost, but it looks like they’re still churning them out, so… eh, it’s not great but its fine.
I would argue that merely comparing generic PC sales to Switch sales also misses the mark. At the very least, you’d focus on unique Steam installs or Active Steam Accounts if you’re really interested in counting the success of Steam relative to Nintendo.
Even then, what you’re really competing with isn’t “SteamDeck sales v. Switch sales”. I’d say its “SteamDeck sales per $1 advertising spent v. …” Given that Nintendo spent around $730M in advertising last year and Valve spent under $100M, it seems that Nintendo has to spend roughly $50/unit to move a Switch relative to Valve coming in closer to $40/unit.
It’s very difficult to compare popularity under two wildly divergent marketing strategies.
But I don’t feel that Steam alone accounts for PC gaming.
Even on my Steam Deck, I use GOG, Epic, and itch.io quite regularly.
But I don’t feel that Steam alone accounts for PC gaming.
If we’re putting the SteamDeck against Nintendo, I’d say the natural comparison is Steam exclusives against Nintendo exclusives.
Even on my Steam Deck, I use GOG, Epic, and itch.io quite regularly.
Sure. Because it is functionally just a computer with a Valve-branded Linux distro. But there are PC games ported to Mobile. I’m not going to count all Android phones to the “PC” side of the aisle just because I can install Balatro on my OnePlus.
The whole reason the Steam Deck exists is to compete as a portable full sized hand-held console comparable to the Switch. If you’re not talking about portable consoles, you’re not really talking apples-to-apples. Anyone crammed into the coach end on an airplane can tell you the quality of life difference between a gaming laptop and a hand-held.
If we’re putting the SteamDeck against Nintendo, I’d say the natural comparison is Steam exclusives against Nintendo exclusives.
This makes no sense because as you just mentioned, the Steam Deck is just a Valve-branded Linux distro. Really, what we should be doing is counting PC exclusives. And I say PC because Proton makes the difference between Windows and Linux moot – Steam Deck plays Windows games, often better than Windows itself.
If we’re talking exclusives, there are way more on PC than on Switch.
The whole reason the Steam Deck exists is to compete as a portable full sized hand-held console comparable to the Switch.
No, the whole reason the Steam Deck exists is to play your PC games on a handheld, and do it with a console-like experience.
What I feel you don’t understand – and I can’t emphasize this enough – is that there are games I’ve always wanted to play on a console that I just couldn’t because they required either a desktop or laptop. Off the top of my head, here’s just a few:
- Blood
- Septerra Core
- Jazz Jackrabbit
- Fate
- AquaNox
You know how many times I wanted those games to get ported to console? Decades later, it still hasn’t happened.
What the Steam Deck does is make games that were previously inaccessible – available on handheld and TV (via dock).
If we’re putting the SteamDeck against Nintendo, I’d say the natural comparison is Steam exclusives against Nintendo exclusives.
I disagree. It would be more accurate to say:
If we’re putting the Steam Deck against the Switch 2, the natural comparison is between Switch 1/2 compatible games, without jailbreak, versus any game that works on the Steam Deck hardware be it Linux Native, with wine/Proton and any emulator that runs games minimum original frame rate with minimal issues.
Bear in mind that the Steam Deck is a handheld Linux computer, and anything that will run on the level of hardware it has and plays nicely with Linux will run on the Steam Deck.
Even just with only installing Steam on the Deck, as of mid-May there is 18k Deck Verified games.
It’s a handheld PC, a new product category. The switch isn’t competing with it, it’s just a toy.
There is a reason why i call all these handheld gaming pcs as decks or gaming decks.
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…ok? Cool you’re here on Lemmy, I guess, GabeN. Welcome!
Tim Sweeny! Is that you!?
It’s very likely that the Switch 2 will far outsell all other PC handhelds combined. And that is very much a loss. Not just to Valve, not just to PC gamers, but to everyone.
You must lived an incredibly charmed and comfortable life.
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…well that’s an interesting (bad) presumption.
Did I miss a sarcasm tag, or are you seriously this histrionic about the biggest and one of the oldest names in video games outselling a niche product? Because it doesn’t matter to almost anyone, even Valve. Multiple things/people can find success at the same time. It’s not zero sum.
I honestly don’t even know what you’re trying to say.
Not going to say why?
All the reasons listed in OP
Lol what comical copium.
They are both handheld gaming devices. To claim otherwise is nothing more than an ideological feature that only matters to 2% of thr market.
Not really copium. OP makes a great point. It’s like comparing Xbox sales to the sales of a specific pre-built PC. The pre-built PC could never compete, but all PC sales over a given period likely outnumber Xbox sales significantly.
I don’t own either, and probably never will, but IMO, you are the one who is coping.
Pure copium.
They are both handheld gaming devices. Consumers do not care about anything else, just wait until the xbox handheld eats even more of those sales.
If you want to play Mario Kart World, your only option is to buy a Switch 2. Period.
For now.
Sure, if it doesn’t bother someone to wait 3-5 years. It’s no Problem. You can say this too all kind of Games. You don’t want to pay 100$ for GTA VI? No Problem, just wait 5 years and it will be 20$ on sale.
Gamers do be a patient bunch sometimes
I’m still playing AOE 2/3, civ v and endless space after all these years
Yuup. Nintendo’s biggest advantage has always been their intellectual property, and even that hasn’t always saved them. glances at the Wii U
Fuck $80 mario you can get Garfield Kart for $5
Super tux kart is free
Personally I’m big on Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart. A mod of a doom mod that plays like super mario kart pushed to it’s absolute limit, with a community that has added most characters you can think of, a million quality of life changes, and some things that crank it to 11 for me, like the blue shell equivalent moving just slightly faster than your top speed, so if you play perfectly and drift dash nonstop you can keep it just barely tickling your butthole but not hitting you.
I mean, in the past it was their biggest advantage but, yeah, now it’s not wroth the investment.
Punished Arbuckle
Forget the wii u. The switch is really emulated on potatoes. I know, i have one and played Mario Wonder on it.
I’m looking forward to emulating the switch 2 games on my Deck.
And it’s an even better experience to emulate too, you get lots of options for the same or better performance, resolution, better than default graphics options, mods etc.
They’re also much better for local party games. That’s essentially what my Switch has become.
Yep give it a year or so. The emulator will be up and running.
I hope so but switch 1 emulation took like 3 years to get it into a good state
Has either company “lost” anything? They both seems to be raking in money quite healthily.
True no one needs to fight for either company.
A very good point. :)
