Black Myth: Wukong shows very clearly Valve are selling a lot of Steam Decks

Valve don't exactly like to give out sales numbers, so we often have to make educated guesses but sometimes with huge hits like Black Myth: Wukong, it gives us a slightly clearer idea on how the Steam Deck is actually selling.

For a while I've been tracking the top sellers lists on Steam to see where the Steam Deck ranks. It's important for us especially that it does well, since it's a Linux device (SteamOS) flowing out into the hands of the public. And masses of improvements there benefit Linux gaming as a whole from driver improvements to Proton upgrades.

The thing is, the top sellers lists on Steam go by revenue, not units sold. The Steam Deck costs (in comparison) a lot more compared to games so naturally it will rank quite high anyway most of the time. But, here's where the fun begins. Black Myth: Wukong is a huge hit, a truly massive seller. According to the official X/Twitter account, by August 23rd it had hit already 10 million sales across all platforms. Right now another 4 days later, both VG Insights and Gamalytic put it somewhere around 14 million sold just on Steam.

When you look at the global top seller list on Steam right now, removing free to play titles so just those you have to pay for you end up with:

1. Black Myth: Wukong
2. Steam Deck
3. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

All three of those games will be selling a lot and the cheapest of them (Black Myth: Wukong) is £49.99. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 for example, is currently the second most-wishlisted game on Steam while also being a top seller on pre-orders. So, this shows pretty darn well in no uncertain terms, that the Steam Deck from Valve is also clearly selling a lot of units too right? Probably quite a few more than a lot of people thought. Likely even more than I thought recently too. Keep in mind that by November last year, Valve said the Steam Deck had already sold "multiple millions".

Perhaps no surprise then when we see developers getting their games Steam Deck Verified well ahead of release, like the upcoming Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

So then, how about Fortnite on Linux / Steam Deck? Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said when it hits "tens of millions of users" that it "would actually make sense to support it". We must be pretty close by now right? Why ignore a platform that's sold multiple millions, and is clearly just continuing to fly off the shelves?

But, another thing, this also goes to show that Valve are likely in no rush at all on a Steam Deck 2. They simply don't need to do one right now. Also shows why Valve continue to roll out new Steam Deck features on Steam like the reviews filter, a most played games chart and why there's no rush to get SteamOS on other devices.