The Steam Deck just hit over 13,000 playable or verified games and you can never again complain that there’s nothing to play if you already own one of Valve’s handheld heroes. Better still, this now outshines the Nintendo Switch library which sits at just under 11,000 games.
All of the best Steam Deck games have passed through the Valve certification process and received a rating that lets you know how it’s likely to perform. As this process continues, there’s no limit on how many games can be playable, infinitely boosting the value the console offers.
The achievement of outperforming the Nintendo Switch when it comes to game volume is all the more impressive when you consider that it was only released in February 2022 compared to the Switch’s release date of March 2017.
Valve has been incredibly proactive in revisiting older PC games to give them a Steam Deck rating while ensuring new releases have a rating ready at launch. At the time of writing, there are 8,751 playable games, 4,356 verified games, and 3,720 unsupported games.
This number also fails to include any exclusive games from the Epic Game Store, Battle.Net, or other unverified sources and platforms, so the true number could be even higher.
The Nintendo Switch is heavily rumored to be getting a brand new iteration this year after more than six incredibly successful years on the market. Despite the addition of older games via the Nintendo Switch Online service, and a very active indie marketplace, the Switch has somewhat stalled on the games front, leading to a shift that sees the Steam Deck possibly have the largest official gaming catalog of any gaming handheld ever.
With the release of the Steam Deck OLED, and rumors of a Steam Deck 2 still going strong, there’s no reason to believe that Valve will rest on its laurels with the PC gaming handheld, and the best may still be yet to come.
Looking to get your hands on a Steam Deck? It might be worth steering clear of the second-hand market if you’re looking to avoid complications that struck one unfortunate buyer.