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At one point it seemed like there was just no stopping the Steam Deck but now it seems after being available for 1 year and around 8 months or so, the Steam Deck has started to move down the top sellers on Steam.

That was one heck of a run though right? Going over Valve's own Weekly Top Sellers list from the Steam Deck release up until the week of "Tue, September 26, 2023 - Tue, October 3, 2023", the Steam Deck was always globally in the top 10, where in that week it hit 11th place and the following week "Tue, October 3, 2023 - Tue, October 10, 2023" it hit 15th place. So that's around 83 weeks in the top 10 globally.

Keep in mind Valve's top seller list is by revenue, not units sold. Quite a number of those weeks (around 22) the Steam Deck was even in the number 1 spot globally. Coming up against games that were repeatedly selling in the multiple hundreds of thousands, and in many cases millions, that's a lot of Linux-powered Steam Decks going out into the hands of gamers.

That's only globally though, when going to different regions, the Steam Deck is still in the top 10 for some, but the opposite is also true, in some regions it's also much lower.

Given that handheld PC gaming is still quite a niche overall, with a lot more competition now from other vendors and with rumours swirling of an upcoming refresh, it's perhaps not surprising to finally see it start to slide down a little.

The Steam Deck only continues to mature and get better over time too, with lots and lots of Proton updates improving game compatibility and SteamOS 3.5 now in Preview, there's still constant excitement for the Steam Deck.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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21 comments
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Vardamir Oct 10, 2023
If the top sellers list is by revenue, how come that Counter Strike 2 is number 1?
Chesck Oct 10, 2023
Yeah, I was gonna say, this definitely has to do with the refresh. With the uncertainty of a new version possibly releasing days or hours after you buy one, people are gonna wait.
Pengling Oct 10, 2023
I'd be surprised if the lack of availability in all countries wasn't playing some part, here.
Purple Library Guy Oct 10, 2023
Guess they'll have to add some more regions it's sold in.
Liam Dawe Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: VardamirIf the top sellers list is by revenue, how come that Counter Strike 2 is number 1?
probably microtransactions volume. especially considering players trading cs2 items on steam's marketplace, and valve also takes around 10% cut from each transaction.
Yeah it’s from micro and prime status upgrades. Revenue counts everything for a game.
pb Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: VardamirIf the top sellers list is by revenue, how come that Counter Strike 2 is number 1?

Have you ever seen top earners list on android? It's dominated by free games...


Last edited by pb on 10 October 2023 at 4:11 pm UTC
sarmad Oct 10, 2023
Keep in mind that "globally" doesn't actually mean globally since the Steam Deck isn't selling in every territory, with big markets still left out.
Eike Oct 10, 2023
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Quoting: sarmadKeep in mind that "globally" doesn't actually mean globally since the Steam Deck isn't selling in every territory, with big markets still left out.

So the place it had is even more amazing...
Liam Dawe Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: sarmadKeep in mind that "globally" doesn't actually mean globally since the Steam Deck isn't selling in every territory, with big markets still left out.
You're right of course, the Steam Deck is not sold in every single country in the world. Globally of course is specific to Steam globally and where it's supported and sold. Otherwise, I would be listing the individual countries every time, most people get this without needing to clarify what globally on Steam means.
denyasis Oct 10, 2023
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: Guest
Quoting: VardamirIf the top sellers list is by revenue, how come that Counter Strike 2 is number 1?
probably microtransactions volume. especially considering players trading cs2 items on steam's marketplace, and valve also takes around 10% cut from each transaction.
Yeah it’s from micro and prime status upgrades. Revenue counts everything for a game.

Never thought of it that way. Thanks for the explanation! I've not played any games like this, so this might be a stupid question, but does that mean Valve requires all micro transactions to go through Steam or can a dev run it in their own, independent, platform?

I'm assuming, if the latter is allowed, there could be sin gaps in the data??


Last edited by denyasis on 10 October 2023 at 7:19 pm UTC
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