- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Thread starter
- #1
Great number for a great device, and hopefully Valve can keep this going. It also shows us the scale of this system’s sales, which is important data to keep in mind for future discussions.
Steam Deck has crossed shipments of 1 million globally, per new report
- Thread starter Phantom Thief
- Replies 90
- Views 6,711
- Start date
- Milestone
Great number for a great device, and hopefully Valve can keep this going. It also shows us the scale of this system’s sales, which is important data to keep in mind for future discussions.
MysticGon
Member
Assuming the number is accurate, 1 million before the first year would be a great result and would be in stark contrast to Stadia. If the pace accelerates it could graduate from Dreamcast/Wii U potential to GameCube/Xbox numbers.
Switch has gotten people used to the idea of higher quality portable gaming. Shortages and scalping now make alternatives more appealing.
If Squeenix, Capcom, From, Bamco, Sega and KT threw their full might behind Steam in ways they never would for Nintendo and the company that could benefit most would be Sony. All of a sudden those PlayStation+PC exclusive deals have much bigger potential.
They would natural be drawn to it by the sales potential of the ravenous Steam user base and Sony and Microsoft are quite happy selling games on the platform.
Switch has gotten people used to the idea of higher quality portable gaming. Shortages and scalping now make alternatives more appealing.
If Squeenix, Capcom, From, Bamco, Sega and KT threw their full might behind Steam in ways they never would for Nintendo and the company that could benefit most would be Sony. All of a sudden those PlayStation+PC exclusive deals have much bigger potential.
They would natural be drawn to it by the sales potential of the ravenous Steam user base and Sony and Microsoft are quite happy selling games on the platform.
Lelouch0612
Staff
That's a very promising result.
Valve really nailed the marketing surrounding the Deck and the value it brought to the table.
Very good market read from them so kudos.
Valve really nailed the marketing surrounding the Deck and the value it brought to the table.
Very good market read from them so kudos.
Astral_lion02
Member
1M in less than a year without presence at retailers is great.
Handheld HW sales (excluding Nintendo)
PSP : >76M
PS Vita : ~15M
Game Gear : >10M
Wonderswan : ~3,5M
N-Gage : ~3M
Neo Geo Pocket : ~2M
PC Engine GT : ~1,5M
Sega Nomad : ~1M
Atari lynx : ~500k
It will be interesting to see how high can Steam deck go.
Handheld HW sales (excluding Nintendo)
PSP : >76M
PS Vita : ~15M
Game Gear : >10M
Wonderswan : ~3,5M
N-Gage : ~3M
Neo Geo Pocket : ~2M
PC Engine GT : ~1,5M
Sega Nomad : ~1M
Atari lynx : ~500k
It will be interesting to see how high can Steam deck go.
Cocodor
Member
It's a very enthusiastic vocal minority, but it still very much is a niche market atm.
It's a great result and way more promising than other handheld PCs, but some are overrating this success and how all publishers should cater to it immediately...
Looking forward to the future gen of Decks with better ergonomy and other hardware improvements.
It's a great result and way more promising than other handheld PCs, but some are overrating this success and how all publishers should cater to it immediately...
Looking forward to the future gen of Decks with better ergonomy and other hardware improvements.
NintendoSphere
Member
Other than valve putting it on the front page of steam, I've not seem them do any type of marketing for this thing. They probably don't have to since so many people are willing to promote it as a piracy machine. 
SilverACREQ
Member
- Pronouns
- he/him
Do you also have a region breakdown for each?
It's nice Valve finally felt comfortable enough to show numbers now when are they comfortable enough for region breakdown as well. Nonetheless pretty good number cant wait for when they show the next update.
Given that you can only buy it from Steam - and Steam users are the main target audience for it - coupled with the shipment delays they experienced, I think they've done enough for the time being. Once/If they can get them in retail stores, I imagine things will change.Other than valve putting it on the front page of steam, I've not seem them do any type of marketing for this thing. They probably don't have to since so many people are willing to promote it as a piracy machine.
That said, they had a decent presence at TGS.
EnergyDrink
Member
- Pronouns
- he/him
How reliable is this source? Since valve refuse to share numbers how can the source know the sales?
Dakota Joestar
Member
- Pronouns
- He/him
Got mine's a couple weeks ago and been replaying Yakuza 0 on it. Easily one of my favorite gaming devices, it deserves all the success it will see and good on Valve for seemingly now being able to meet the demand.
AMD would need to keep up with low powered apus to keep up with rising minimum specs. It's a question how much longer is 4 cores gonna last
enpleinjour
Member
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't think this is a great result, but its a start for Valve in the hardware business that shows potential. Could lead to something bigger perhaps in the next iteration now that a relatively big market for Valve has been established.
Would also like to see more investment by Nvidia and AMD in pushing efficiently powerful chips. The things Apple have done with the A and M series has blown everyone away.
Would also like to see more investment by Nvidia and AMD in pushing efficiently powerful chips. The things Apple have done with the A and M series has blown everyone away.
they would have to change their whole business model to replicate apple. Nvidia is already doing what apple is doing with the Grace Hopper chip, but that's a different business. AMD has to cut out their buyers and make whole solutions to justify making a chip like Apple. the M1 Max and M1 Ultra are FUCKING BIG, after all. and Apple doesn't sell chips, they sell complete systems with control over the ecosystem
MysticGon
Member
I think Series S, Deck and the next Switch will keep targets low for the next decade. They could represent a large share of the industry in a couple of years. Developers can still add bells and whistles on top.
at leas the Series S and Switch has more cpu cores to work with. though SD can clock higher; possibly transferring more available power to the cpu should extend the life of it
enpleinjour
Member
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Its pretty clear that there is a huge demand of energy efficient, powerful chips though and its only ever going to grow. Smartphones are close to or have already surpassed PCs as computing devices. Cars are starting to require more and more chip functionality from OS, connectivity and in the future for automation. That's another fleet of 1B+.
We see this in parts of the server market, so much that Amazon designed their own ARM chip. We see this as wearable tech has exploded, from smartwatches, ear devices and soon to be AR/VR devices. Another 1B+ devices.
Car manufactures, cloud vendors, smartphone makers, wearable devices, there is a big and growing need for these vendors for such a chip.
all of these have different design requirements than a gaming device however. coincidentally, AMD only serves one of those markets and isn't currently in the position to attempt the rest. as for the Apple comparisons, they already cover the M1 portion, but the higher end chips are a no go. it's just not cost efficient
If you're referring 'piracy' to emulation by any chance then can we keep 'emulation is piracy' topic off from this thread? Thanks.Other than valve putting it on the front page of steam, I've not seem them do any type of marketing for this thing. They probably don't have to since so many people are willing to promote it as a piracy machine.
Last edited:
Multiverse
Member
Not even a Vita killer. Let alone Switch. They can lay that term to rest.
NintendoSphere
Member
Simply stating the truth.
Your truth(opinion) on emulation, has no place in a sales thread. Please take it somewhere else.
Lelouch0612
Staff
Let's move away from that topic yeah.
enpleinjour
Member
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The cross pollination is what starts it. An energy efficient architecture is what leads to powerful, portable gaming devices. Apple started with smartphone chips, and is now utilising the platform for laptops, airpods, smartwatches, assistants and soon to be AR/VR and cars.
As pure play chip company, the ideal position is to be in multiple markets, not just specialised in one.
It makes little sense to restrict GPU design to high end gaming only, especially when Nvidia's gaming revenue has dropped by 30%, and it has been clear that they were propping it up with the cryptocurrency market.
In fact its already clear Nvidia wants to be in portable markets, where there is likely a far bigger market. The attempted takeover of ARM was motivated by these markets.
I think It will never become a mass market machine like Nintendo Portables, PSP mainly because they will have to pay effort equal to console makers to manufacture hardware, taking attention away from what they actually do that is operating a software platform. They're not big enough to have different subsidiaries pay attention to various parts of their ecosystem. It might do...a lot as a niche machine in the long run but thats what it will be limited to, IMHO.
I was expecting that the sales number was high, but it's normal in a games forum it seems that everyone knows the steam deck, but in the real world it's almost unknow.
I had one reserved, but didn't go through the purchase. My primary intention/hope was a integration of gamepass on it that didn't happened. The second reason was to emulation, that alone sometimes makes me wanting one.
I had one reserved, but didn't go through the purchase. My primary intention/hope was a integration of gamepass on it that didn't happened. The second reason was to emulation, that alone sometimes makes me wanting one.
Last edited:
Celine
Archivist
After about 7 months in the market PlayStation Vita sat at 2.2 million units sold-in worldwide (after about 8 months in the market Nintendo 3DS sat at 6.68 million units sold-in worldwide).
Of course PSV and SD don't share much in common (SD started more as a boutique product which could only be ordered through Valve website).
Of course PSV and SD don't share much in common (SD started more as a boutique product which could only be ordered through Valve website).
Last edited:
Fatal Nutritionist
Member
You seem to be using first year sales for some of these and full LTD for others. Lynx for example sold 500,000 in a few months. Neo Geo pocket iirc is combined. I'm also curious about that Nomad number.
But Steam Deck is doing well. I don't know if you can call it a niche anymore. Maybe for not, but once it passes 2 million given it's a PC that can be connected to a display at a high cost, that doesn't seem niche to me. Valve basically found a way to do continuum from Windows phone right using Games as a trojan.
cw_sasuke
Member
Its a niche because the install base its much smaller compared to other players as in Xbox, Playstation, Steam/PC in general, Android, iOS.
The fact that 2-3m units sold are already considered a big milestone and win says it all. There is nothing wrong with being a successful and viable niche product of a much bigger general PC market.
SteamDeck doesnt need to sell 100m to be a success, same way MS doesnt doesnt to sell more Xbox systems than Sony Playstations for their strategy to make sense.
It has the potential to grow into more over years and iterations but as of now, i would say the label fits.
Nintendianajones64
Member
I expected it to be higher considering how gamers online act about it.
EnergyDrink
Member
- Pronouns
- he/him
Deck is basically a portable low end PC. If the sales are really what this guy says (its looks like just a rumor or a guess) its okay for what it is.
The main target are Steam users and if my experience with Steam is normal, all Steam users get ads for this device shoved in the face every time they open Steam, it begins to annoy me. So I think the sales should be higher with this amount of marketing.
The main target are Steam users and if my experience with Steam is normal, all Steam users get ads for this device shoved in the face every time they open Steam, it begins to annoy me. So I think the sales should be higher with this amount of marketing.
MysticGon
Member
You say that as if this device isn't on a months long waiting list. Demand currently is not met and should only grow as Valve expands into more markets.
The big sign that this is success is that it's grown the addressable handheld PC market by roughly 2 orders of magnitude, going from tens-of-thousands to millions. They've instantly crushed the boutique manufacturers who made a decent living in this space - GPD, Aya, Ayn etc.
It's not a success on the scale of Nintendo Switch of course, but Valve's investment is also a lot smaller. Given that they're still working on their backlog of orders as you say, I can't imagine them not being very happy here.
Astral_lion02
Member
It's last knowh numbers for all of these.
Some of these system where quickly discontuned after launch due to low sales.
Sega nomad source :
For Regional data :
Game Gear (as March 94)
NA : 3,80M
EU : 2,80M
JP : 1,25M
WW : 7,85M
Game Gear cross 10M one year latter.
PSP :
JP (Famitsu) : ~19M
US (NPD) : 20M~23M
PS Vita :
PSV Total Hardware
WonderSwan was realeased only in Japan, Sega Nomad only in the US and for others it's irrevelant.
Excluding Japan it's probably ~1,3M PSV VS >0,95M for Steam deck.
And PSV sales collapse outside Japan after 2012.
Ryuichi Naruhodo
Member
While IMO Steam Deck won't be as essential as Consoles/PC and it is somewhere in an area that it doesn't have the full freedom of PC ( nor has native versions for all its Steam Library games ) and isn't as powerful as current consoles and isn't as comfortable to hold as other Portable options ( I think its best target audience is for Console players who wants to dive into PC-lite experience without going through the Full potential of PC with its pros and cons and doesn't have high expectations graphics wise ) , but it will be a successful product on its own and I think Valve is happy with its performance
Last edited:
MysticGon
Member
Fatal Nutritionist
Member
I wonder if Steam Deck will sell more than the 3 million Continuum Windows Phones. Microsoft should consider bringing that feature back with a more affordable smartphone. Of course, have the phone run android but make it so you can hook it up through a dock and run windows 10/11 on any display. I think it was a good idea but they came up with it when WP was in the ditch and after the Windows 8 debacle, they also didn't allow many phones to upgrade and it was a hassle for the ones that did.
Apparently the 512gb model still has one. But it sounds like they can launch it a bunch of other regions then! It's still not available in parts of Europe or Australia/NZ. I think they've only just started taking orders in East Asia as well.
Edit: The video mentions that this is happening despite increasing reservation volume over time, because they've been able to dramatically increase supply. That's very good news in that case.
MysticGon
Member
Next year will pain a clearer picture one where Deck will go long term but the Asia launch and mass production happening right before Christmas means 2 million could be sorted out in short order.
MysticGon
Member
Didn't want to make a new thread so I'll bump this one.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
"The community continues to blow our minds": Valve talk the Steam Deck, one year on
With the Steam Deck hitting its one-year anniversary, we chat to Valve about the handheld's first 12 months in an exclusive interview.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
Mekanos
Member
- Pronouns
- he/they
Didn't want to make a new thread so I'll bump this one.
"The community continues to blow our minds": Valve talk the Steam Deck, one year on
With the Steam Deck hitting its one-year anniversary, we chat to Valve about the handheld's first 12 months in an exclusive interview.
Sounds good to me, I'll probably get one now rather than wait. Much prefer portable play these days.