The Steam Deck library is vast, almost innumerable, as more games continue to make their way to Steam and platforms beyond. In spite of the seemingly ever-increasing library for the handheld, Valve continues to do what it can to help users find quality experiences, with the company recently hitting a new milestone.
The ‘Deck Verified’ compatibility program has proven invaluable since it first launched back in October 2021, several months after the Steam Deck itself. Maintained by Valve and moderated by the community, the ‘Verified’ and ‘Playable’ compatibility categories continue to help shine a light on some of the best Steam Deck games out there.
There are now officially over 14,000 Steam Deck compatible games by Valve’s count, according to the latest figures on SteamDB. More specifically, there are now 9,416 ‘Playable’ games with another 4,607 ‘Verified’ making up the rest, for a total of 14,023 at the time of writing.
It’s taken Valve just under 29 months to get to this figure, not forgetting the 3,924 games the company has deemed unsupported, bringing the total number of games it’s tested up to 17,947 (that’s around 619 games a month). While this pace is inarguably admirable, there’s still a way to go before we even get close to getting an official word on the 146,548 Windows titles on Steam, a number that will only continue to grow.
This vast unknown will likely and understandably never be fully catalogued and explored but this of course doesn’t negate the value the Deck Verified system offers to Steam Deck users, and eventual Steam Deck 2 adopters. In fact, it’s a key part of what makes the device unique in the face of competitors like the ROG Ally, serving as a welcome guiding hand as you search for that next game to take on the go.
Yes, the system isn’t as perfect, as the launch of Remnant 2 demonstrated and the number of ‘Unsupported’ games that do in fact work on Steam Deck with a few tweaks. Despite its imperfections, processes can be refined, as evidenced by the increased number of games getting Steam Deck compatibility ratings ahead of launch rather than sitting in the limbo of ‘Unknown’ for varying lengths of time.
Truth be told, I’ll mourn the day Deck Verified comes to an end as these statistics are the result of attention and care from testers from both within Valve and the wider Steam Deck community. It’s this sense of communal contribution that makes the device one of the best handheld gaming PCs out there, and this program is in some ways proof of that. Here’s to the next 14,000 or even just 14 games that make the cut.