‘The future of hardware at Valve is bright’: Valve celebrates the success of Steam Deck and Steam OS

Valve has released a massive Year in Review highlighting all of its achievements in 2024. It’s a big document, and it’s not all gripping reading, but one thing that stands out is its details on Valve’s hardware interests, particularly where Steam Deck is concerned. According to Valve, Steam Deck players spent 330 million hours playing in 2024, which was a 64% increase over 2023. I’d wager about 200 million of those hours were spent playing Balatro, but that’s just a guess.

That’s a pretty big jump for a pricey handheld that’s still considered fairly niche, though the influence of its playerbase is starting to show. Square Enix made the effort to highlight Steam Deck compatibility for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth earlier this year, and just yesterday, Ubisoft confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be Verified on the Deck, after initially ruling it out. In other words, major publishers are now thinking about the burgeoning PC handheld market.