A new report from Omdia currently doing the rounds is that the Steam Deck from Valve is set to hit 3 million sales during 2023.
We already knew it had hit at least 1 million in 2022, when a KDE developer gave away the figure but Valve actually hasn't talked about the sales figures yet. It's easy to see why Valve aren't announcing any figures — but it seems others will do it for them anyway like this. The report estimates Valve hit about 1.6 million during 2022 and will ship 1.9 million in 2023.
So why don't Valve give out any figures themselves? Valve has always been pretty tight-lipped about details, and this is really no different to their normal operation. They don't need to give out figures either, they're a private company and don't have anyone to please but their own pockets. If they did release regular figures, can you imagine the wider headlines from the major gaming press (and likely other media too)? No doubt it would be instantly talked down like a failure because it's not hitting the levels of the Switch or Xbox.
As we know, it doesn't need to shift multiple millions per month for Valve, since it's part of a single ecosystem where they continue to print money with their 30% cut of Steam games. It doesn't really help though that it's sold in very limited places (mostly via Steam or Komodo), with the only actual retail presence recently announced in Asia and even there it's limited. So when you think it's shifting this many with no traditional retail store presence outside of the previous link talking about a few Asian regions, and still only being available in select countries officially worldwide, it's doing well overall.
Realistically speaking, the Steam Deck is a niche device, especially considering a lot of people using Steam would already have a PC or Laptop to play their games. That said, it does seem to be hitting above its weight, as Valve devs noted over around 42% of people buying one ended up spending the majority of their gaming time with it. Plus, with a Steam Deck 2 likely years away, there's no reason to hold off on picking one up now if you want to play PC games on the go that it enables.
What are your thoughts?
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
deck might be the first gaming device in history to sell a lot without exclusives.
if deck can prove its possible, then others will be more pressured to follow.
be it by the public or maybe even stake holders.
Last edited by elmapul on 7 April 2023 at 8:29 pm UTC
Quoting: elmapulwindows users DONT HATE FREEDOMSome do. Otherwise I can't explain why so many people demand the inclusion of Denuvo in their games. I simply don't get it.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyOK, so 3 million units. And, how many Linux desktop users are on Steam? It's certainly significant from our point of view. These are the kinds of figures that make Linux a bigger target for game development than Mac.Not directly. March's figures are still broken by double-counting China, so I'll use February's. Mac was at 2.37% and Linux was at 1.27%, of which 21.05% was the Deck. So the 1.6 million represents roughly 0.27 percentage points of the Steam market*. If we add another 1.9 million, that's an additional roughly 0.32 percentage points, which would take us up to 1.59%. There's still a way to go until we're a bigger market than Mac. Of course Macs come with all sorts of hoops to jump through to develop for, so we'll have an easier time being a better market than Mac. We're arguably there already.
*(obviously this is only an orders-of-magnitude guesstimate; remember to warm up before attempting hand-waving so vigorous)
Quoting: CatKillerLinux was at 1.27%, of which 21.05% was the Deck. So the 1.6 million represents roughly 0.27 percentage points of the Steam market*. If we add another 1.9 million, that's an additional roughly 0.32 percentage points
if your numbers are right, then steam might have half a billion users nowadays... i dont think this is correct, last time i checked it was something arround 120 millions or maybe 160 millions, but not even close to 500 millions.
there is something wrong here, either most steam deck users install windows on their machines, or linux marketshare is wrong or steamOS marketshare...
Quoting: elmapulif your numbers are right, then steam might have half a billion users nowadays... i dont think this is correct, last time i checked it was something arround 120 millions or maybe 160 millions, but not even close to 500 millions.Nope. Very few users install Windows on the Deck. The Deck is about 1/400th of the Steam market (AMD Custom GPU 0405 is the Deck's GPU). Steam is just huge. The hundred-and-something million is just how many people happened to sign in during a particular month - the monthly active users. The total number of users is bigger.
there is something wrong here, either most steam deck users install windows on their machines, or linux marketshare is wrong or steamOS marketshare...
Last edited by CatKiller on 8 April 2023 at 1:16 am UTC
Quoting: on_en_a_grosQuoting: pete910Quoting: ElamanOpiskelijaGPD
????
No clue to what you are referring too.
A mini pc / handheld, a power beast but with high price.
https://www.gpd.hk/product
Quoting: CatKillerQuoting: pete910????https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2022/04/gpd-are-getting-quite-desperate-against-the-steam-deck/
No clue to what you are referring too.
Cheers, I remember now.
Quoting: sarmadI think the numbers are not as good as it could've been. The device has a very good reputation and it could see much more success if Valve does better marketing for it. For example, why isn't it being sold at retail stores or other big online stores like Amazon? Why isn't it being sold in the rest of Asia, South America, and Africa? I think what's holding the device back is simply Valve being slow.
Not as simple as selling everywhere, You need the supply to be able to do it for a start. The logistics ain't easy going full global either.
Quoting: 1xokIf Valve were organised differently, they could sell many times more. Even notorious console players are very positive about the Deck when they get their hands on one.
Not sure this logic makes sense. Even if they aren't as huge as MS, Valve make a lot of profit. Really a lot. Managing even Deck size hardware business requires a ton of resources and production overhead, and they already manage that, meaning they can afford it. Scaling it up now isn't the problem if there is enough demand. They can do it gradually also, to avoid over supply.
Last edited by Shmerl on 9 April 2023 at 6:07 pm UTC
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