this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2025
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What people miss about Steam Deck's "loss" to Nintendo (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by atomicpoet@lemmy.world to c/games@lemmy.world
202 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

It’s silly to compare Switch 2 sales to Steam Deck sales.

The Switch 2 is a locked-down, vertically integrated platform. There are no ROG Switch 2s. No Lenovo Switch 2s. No Switch laptops or tower PCs with discrete GPUs. If you want to play Mario Kart World, your only option is to buy a Switch 2. Period.

Steam Deck, by contrast, isn’t a platform. It’s just one hardware option—one entry point into the sprawling, open ecosystem known as PC gaming.

Every year, around 245 million PCs are shipped globally. If even 20–25% of those are gaming-focused, that’s 49–61 million gaming PCs annually. Steam Deck is a sliver of that. So of course it won’t outsell a console that’s the only gateway to a major IP.

But that’s exactly the point.

PC gaming is too decentralized for any single device to dominate. The last “PC” that did was the Commodore 64, which sold 12.5–17 million units over 12 years because it was a self-contained platform, unlike modern Windows, Mac, or Linux machines.

That the Steam Deck has sold 4 million units despite competing with every other gaming PC in existence is remarkable. It didn’t just sell—it legitimized a category. Handheld PC gaming is now a thing. That’s why Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI have followed. Even Microsoft is getting in, optimizing Windows for handhelds—something they would never have done if the Steam Deck didn't hold their feet to the fire.

So no, Steam Deck didn’t outsell the Switch 2. It didn’t need to.

It won by changing the landscape.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Competition is good. If the Switch didn't exist then I don't think we would've gotten the Steam Deck.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

If the Switch didn't exist then I don't think we would've gotten the Steam Deck.

or we would have earlier and more of it? I'm not sure how are you basing your hipothesis is but to assume that handheld market with this crazy demand would just be there unfulfilled is kinda silly. Switch didn't event some magic technology that was not available before - it just took the market.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You're contradicting yourself. If you believe the Steam Deck exists purely independently from the Switch and that we would've had the Steam Deck before the Switch if the Switch never existed, but we didn't, it came after.

And no, I don't think it invented some sort of magic technology, obviously I don't think that. I'm saying the Steam Deck was good competition for the Switch in the portable/docked market (whatever we wanna call those).

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 0 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Correlation vs causation much? Not sure what to tell you.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 0 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You're saying if we didn't have the Switch we would've had the Steam Deck earlier but you're also saying the Steam Deck is something totally independent of the Switch. But if it was totally independent, why do you think it would've come earlier if the Switch didn't exist? That's why I'm saying you're contradicting yourself.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I said it might have come earlier. You fundamentally don't understand correlation vs causation and getting angry with me dude. Seriously go read a book or something this is silly.