ELDEN RING tops the Steam Deck most played for May 2023

Lord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

Prior to this, I finished a Ori and the Will of the Wisps run. Great game! I had quite a blast. I tried RDR2, but even though I recognize the quality of the game, I can't seem to get the hang of it... Probably my ADD. Else, I dusted off some Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max. All on the Steam Deck or on my desktop via the Steam Link app on my Nvidia Shield.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 1 June 2023 at 5:24 pm UTC

Elden ring is only thing I play on my deck. It’s the Zelda for the deck 😋. So hyped for the two big dlcs


Last edited by Zelox on 1 June 2023 at 5:31 pm UTC

Hades...When I can pry my Steam Deck from my SO's hands... (Hades too, but a second run). I guess I need to buy a second one at some point.

It's a pain to manage a single one, especially as I often use it as a computer, booting on an external SSD, docked.


Last edited by MayeulC on 6 June 2023 at 10:11 am UTC

I find it interesting how Elden Ring, Stardew Valley, and Vampire Survivors are so often battling it out for the top spot in the monthly Steam Deck most-played charts - they're all so different, and on most platforms wouldn't be in such close "competition" like this, so I find it pretty interesting to see.

Quoting: MayeulCIt's a pain to manage a single one, especially as I often use it as a computer, booting on an external SSD, docked.

Just curious, how well do you get along with it in this use-case?

I've played and completed The Pedestrian, The Gardens Between and Blackwell 3. I've started Lego City Undercover (crashes sometimes) and Runaway 2 (needs replacement ddraw.dll to fix extremely 1 FPS cursor trouble).

Im always amazed how Grand Theft Auto V makes onto these lists after all these years.........

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

Prior to this, I finished a Ori and the Will of the Wisps run. Great game! I had quite a blast. I tried RDR2, but even though I recognize the quality of the game, I can't seem to get the hang of it... Probably my ADD. Else, I dusted off some Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max. All on the Steam Deck or on my desktop via the Steam Link app on my Nvidia Shield.

Ha, I spent the effort trying to get D&D Online to work on the Steam Deck, but the controls are definitely intended to be with keyboard and mouse.

Elder Scrolls Online wirks pretty well on it though! I also keep meaning to try Star Trek Online on it.

Brotato is my to-go on Deck :D

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

Prior to this, I finished a Ori and the Will of the Wisps run. Great game! I had quite a blast. I tried RDR2, but even though I recognize the quality of the game, I can't seem to get the hang of it... Probably my ADD. Else, I dusted off some Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max. All on the Steam Deck or on my desktop via the Steam Link app on my Nvidia Shield.

Ha, I spent the effort trying to get D&D Online to work on the Steam Deck, but the controls are definitely intended to be with keyboard and mouse.

Elder Scrolls Online wirks pretty well on it though! I also keep meaning to try Star Trek Online on it.

Aaaah! D&D Online... Got fond memories of this one too. The combat system is a thing of it's own and pretty awesome. Unfortunately the quest system was often a show stopper, for me, when it came to the longer quests that I didn't have enough playtime to finish.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 2 June 2023 at 1:03 pm UTC

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

Prior to this, I finished a Ori and the Will of the Wisps run. Great game! I had quite a blast. I tried RDR2, but even though I recognize the quality of the game, I can't seem to get the hang of it... Probably my ADD. Else, I dusted off some Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max. All on the Steam Deck or on my desktop via the Steam Link app on my Nvidia Shield.

Ha, I spent the effort trying to get D&D Online to work on the Steam Deck, but the controls are definitely intended to be with keyboard and mouse.

Elder Scrolls Online wirks pretty well on it though! I also keep meaning to try Star Trek Online on it.

Aaaah! D&D Online... Got fond memories of this one too. The combat system is a thing of it's own and pretty awesome. Unfortunately the quest system was often a show stopper, for me, when it came to the longer quests that I didn't have enough playtime to finish.

I had an utter bitch of a time figuring out how to get a key for it, as it has changed owners multiple times, and I already have a LOTR Online account from ages ago... who also switched owners a few times.

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

You sir just made me go and download LOTRO to play it again after... maybe 10 years. I need to create an account since my old one is probably lost, but knowing that it works on Steam Deck... I need to go back now. Thank you.

Quoting: Belaptir

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

You sir just made me go and download LOTRO to play it again after... maybe 10 years. I need to create an account since my old one is probably lost, but knowing that it works on Steam Deck... I need to go back now. Thank you.

Sorry... I guess?

But it's similar to me. My main toon was stuck at level 88, at the bridge leading to Edoras, after the Riders of Rohan expansion. Lol!

Since then, they unlocked all contents up to Gondor, I believe.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 2 June 2023 at 5:27 pm UTC

Actually some GTA V, but mostly just speeding around. American Truck Simulator is currently my go to, otherwise Witcher 3 (NG+), Portal 2 (my SO), ...

Quoting: ljrkActually some GTA V, but mostly just speeding around. American Truck Simulator is currently my go to, otherwise Witcher 3 (NG+), Portal 2 (my SO), ...

Doesn’t ATS use a lot of key bindings? How does it play on the Steam Deck?

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: Belaptir

Quoting: MohandevirLord of the Rings Online... On the Steam Deck... Why? Because I can. It's playable. The maps are a little on the small side, some parts are hard to read and you need to get used to the button mappings. No need of the touchscreen, if you don't want to. I wouldn't use it as a daily driver, but as a backup plan, it's better than I thought.

You sir just made me go and download LOTRO to play it again after... maybe 10 years. I need to create an account since my old one is probably lost, but knowing that it works on Steam Deck... I need to go back now. Thank you.

Sorry... I guess?

But it's similar to me. My main toon was stuck at level 88, at the bridge leading to Edoras, after the Riders of Rohan expansion. Lol!

Since then, they unlocked all contents up to Gondor, I believe.

To Gondor! I should actually give the game a try, never really did back in the day.

Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: ljrkActually some GTA V, but mostly just speeding around. American Truck Simulator is currently my go to, otherwise Witcher 3 (NG+), Portal 2 (my SO), ...

Doesn’t ATS use a lot of key bindings? How does it play on the Steam Deck?

Yes and no, you can configure it. On the deck is basically only use the rather simplistic steering option, but I think more complex ones would work to a certain degree. You have 4+4 back/shoulder buttons, 4+4 cross, 2 joy sticks each also a button, 2 trackpads ... . If you drive automatic, there's not much there as well. Of course accurate simulation lacks that way, but it's mostly a wind down game for me :)

Quoting: ljrk

Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: ljrkActually some GTA V, but mostly just speeding around. American Truck Simulator is currently my go to, otherwise Witcher 3 (NG+), Portal 2 (my SO), ...

Doesn’t ATS use a lot of key bindings? How does it play on the Steam Deck?

Yes and no, you can configure it. On the deck is basically only use the rather simplistic steering option, but I think more complex ones would work to a certain degree. You have 4+4 back/shoulder buttons, 4+4 cross, 2 joy sticks each also a button, 2 trackpads ... . If you drive automatic, there's not much there as well. Of course accurate simulation lacks that way, but it's mostly a wind down game for me :)

There's quite a lot of stuff to bind, but even the official Steam Input config for a generic gamepad covers everything you need. The ability to use long presses for less frequently needed stuff like attaching/detaching a trailer and turning off the engine helps a lot. I'd imagine the extra paddles and things on the Deck make it even less fiddly, although personally I like to play these games in front of a large (TV) screen.


Last edited by tuubi on 4 June 2023 at 11:27 am UTC

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: ljrk

Quoting: benstor214

Quoting: ljrkActually some GTA V, but mostly just speeding around. American Truck Simulator is currently my go to, otherwise Witcher 3 (NG+), Portal 2 (my SO), ...

Doesn’t ATS use a lot of key bindings? How does it play on the Steam Deck?

Yes and no, you can configure it. On the deck is basically only use the rather simplistic steering option, but I think more complex ones would work to a certain degree. You have 4+4 back/shoulder buttons, 4+4 cross, 2 joy sticks each also a button, 2 trackpads ... . If you drive automatic, there's not much there as well. Of course accurate simulation lacks that way, but it's mostly a wind down game for me :)

There's quite a lot of stuff to bind, but even the official Steam Input config for a generic gamepad covers everything you need. The ability to use long presses for less frequently needed stuff like attaching/detaching a trailer and turning off the engine helps a lot. I'd imagine the extra paddles and things on the Deck make it even less fiddly, although personally I like to play these games in front of a large (TV) screen.

Yup, I'm just too casual to really do that :D I'm currently a couch gamer, TV would certainly also work with Deck, but it already struggles a bit with ATS graphics (even though I'm using Proton as it's performing better than native).

Quoting: PenglingI find it interesting how Elden Ring, Stardew Valley, and Vampire Survivors are so often battling it out for the top spot in the monthly Steam Deck most-played charts - they're all so different, and on most platforms wouldn't be in such close "competition" like this, so I find it pretty interesting to see.

Quoting: MayeulCIt's a pain to manage a single one, especially as I often use it as a computer, booting on an external SSD, docked.

Just curious, how well do you get along with it in this use-case?

I started detailing the technicalities, then realized that is not what you were after... Well, if I can't use the Steam deck, I can plug the SSD into another computer to retrieve data. I can also boot it up on another computer, but the SD is better (my desktop randomly loses the USB controllers sometimes, which makes USB boot unreliable, and my other laptop only has 4GB of RAM).
I have priority though, as this is now my "work laptop" replacement (where the SSD originally comes from).

Quoting: MayeulCI started detailing the technicalities, then realized that is not what you were after... Well, if I can't use the Steam deck, I can plug the SSD into another computer to retrieve data. I can also boot it up on another computer, but the SD is better (my desktop randomly loses the USB controllers sometimes, which makes USB boot unreliable, and my other laptop only has 4GB of RAM).
I have priority though, as this is now my "work laptop" replacement (where the SSD originally comes from).

Thanks much for taking the time to reply. I'm most curious about using it in place of a laptop - do you use the dock (not necessarily connected to an external monitor) for this?