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[Tech4Gamers] Steam Deck: More Than 7100 Games Are Now Verified Or Playable

SpartaNNNN

SpartaNNNN

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tech4gamers.com

Steam Deck: More Than 7100 Games Are Now Verified Or Playable

According to our find, over 7100 games are verified or playable on Valve's latest handheld, the Steam Deck.
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The Steam Deck is an incredibly innovative handheld gaming console. Many PC users have been impressed by the portable console's utility, despite the compromises over a traditional PC or console setup.

The Steam Deck is an incredibly innovative handheld gaming console. Many PC users have been impressed by the portable console's utility, despite the compromises over a traditional PC or console setup.

Valve has been highly successful with the Steam Deck, and the company is already planning a successor for the product. If this wasn't enough news, we noticed that around 7124 games are now verified or playable on Valve's latest handheld gaming console.

SteamDB Search Query Result of Verified and Playable Games

SteamDB Search Query Result of Verified and Playable Games

As per SteamDB, 2,709 games are verified, 4,415 are playable, and 2,469 are unsupported on the console. However, the number of playable games is likely even higher since the above figure is limited to SteamDB's testing.


Those unfamiliar with the Steam Deck should know that the playable titles can differ from game to game. These games are primarily playable with varying degrees of bugs and glitches. However, many of these games can be completed on the Steam Deck.

Valve's constant support has been one of the key reasons behind Steam Deck's ongoing success. The company has been keen to resolve new and existing issues while continuing to work on game compatibility.

In December, Valve added games like Dark Souls 2 to the list of verified titles. It was previously reported that more than 50% of the top 100 Steam games are included in the playable or verified categories. Recent releases like High on Life can also be enjoyed on Steam Deck.

Steam Deck


Fans can expect even more supported games in the coming months. The number of playable games could be much higher when the next handheld iteration is ready, making the second generation even more compelling as a product.

Valve has recently stated that the successor to the Steam Deck is being worked on and will not bring substantial performance improvements. Instead, the company is focused on improving the user experience with elements like the screen and battery life.

Do you currently own a Steam Deck? Are you interested in portable PC gaming?
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Alek

Alek

Games User Researcher
Verified
Oct 28, 2017
9,202
Honestly that doesn't really mean a lot to me. I'd like to somehow know if they offer a good experience. Are they easy to control? Does the text size scale well to the small screen? Does the game perform well enough that it doesn't bother me? I imagine the subset that meet all of the important criteria for a good user experience is far smaller than those verified as 'playable'.
 
NovumVeritas

NovumVeritas

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,708
Berlin
Great to see 7100 games verified, but that isn't really an indicator unfortunately.

Read here on Era, that some Steam Deck OS updates or Steam Deck Steam Updates have broken some games, which were Steam Deck verfied before. Nice number, but this can change with the next big update.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,806
GungJoe said:
Honestly that doesn't really mean a lot to me. I'd like to somehow know if they offer a good experience. Are they easy to control? Does the text size scale well to the small screen? Does the game perform well enough that it doesn't bother me? I imagine the subset that meet all of the important criteria for a good user experience is far smaller than those verified as 'playable'.
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True, true. Only a small share of Playable and Verified games also have good text and interface scaling, in my experience. Not to mention performance issues. I wish Verified was a bit stricter when it comes text/UI size.
 
NewDust

NewDust

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Oct 25, 2017
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GungJoe said:
Honestly that doesn't really mean a lot to me. I'd like to somehow know if they offer a good experience. Are they easy to control? Does the text size scale well to the small screen? Does the game perform well enough that it doesn't bother me? I imagine the subset that meet all of the important criteria for a good user experience is far smaller than those verified as 'playable'.
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Yup, tried playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition, which has a "playable" indicator and a ProtonDB "gold" status. Seems to work fine for most people, but not for me. Don't know if it is a SteamOS update that broke it or that is simply a quirck of my machine.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,806
NewDust said:
Yup, tried playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition, which has a "playable" indicator and a ProtonDB "gold" status. Seems to work fine for most people, but not for me. Don't know if it is a SteamOS update that broke it or that is simply a quirck of my machine.
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Elden Ring is "Verified" but kept crashing within 30-60 minutes of play until I changed compatibility to an older Proton release. Valve should recheck games at a specific cadence if they want the label to have any value. They've got user feedback built in but that's not going to be useful for games with small player bases.
 
NewDust

NewDust

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.exe said:
Elden Ring is "Verified" but kept crashing within 30-60 minutes of play until I changed compatibility to an older Proton release.
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Sadly tried different Proton versions to no avail. Simply keeps spinning the steam logo on boot and also doesn't quit.
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,696
This doesnt really mean much. Games that are supported can run bad or not at all and majority of the ones not verified work just fine.

Its a fine snapshot i guess for people looking in from the outside but as a SteamDeck owners you get used to pretty much having verify shit yourself but just starting the game and work from there.
Raven1221 said:
This means there are a lot of games that work well with it. Very good new for the Steamdeck.
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So was the case at launch.
 
.exe

.exe

Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,806
NewDust said:
Sadly tried different Proton versions to no avail. Simply keeps spinning the steam logo on boot and also doesn't quit.
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That happened to me too when I changed Proton versions. I'd clean out the old Proton version via the sub-menu on the game's page after switching to another. Then, first launch will stall on Steam logo at EAC (force quit), second launch stalls after EAC (force quit), then on the third try it tends to work and also on repeat launches.

Plenty stuff runs well, but some games are such a pain in the ass... Mirrors my experience with the Deck in general. One week, I'll be over the moon with it; another, I'll want to chuck it at the wall.
 
JustTeaThankYou

JustTeaThankYou

Member
Aug 31, 2019
3,709
I've definitely experienced games in both directions, where they have said to be unsupported but work fine, and where they have said to be supported but don't boot. I guess this is what you get when your database is effectively a user-submitted wiki that will continually become out of date as new proton versions get released.
 
NewDust

NewDust

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.exe said:
That happened to me too when I changed Proton versions. I'd clean out the old Proton version via the sub-menu on the game's page after switching to another. Then, first launch will stall on Steam logo at EAC (force quit), second launch stalls after EAC (force quit), then on the third try it tends to work and also on repeat launches.

Plenty stuff runs well, but some games are such a pain in the ass... Mirrors my experience with the Deck in general. One week, I'll be over the moon with it; another, I'll want to chuck it at the wall.
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Thanks, tried and still not working, but I'll keep tinkering with it.
 
Launchpad

Launchpad

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,334
This is great but I echo some people's thoughts that sometimes games can be verified and later broken by an update with no update to the status. It would be amazing if Valve could also include the ProtonDB status and link so people can see a more in depth verifying system. Having to go to the site on your phone or the deck itself is a bit of a pain.
 
Fawz

Fawz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,811
Montreal
I've found that just about every game I've tried boots up fine and controls properly after tweaking an input profile, regardless of the Verified status in Steam or even ProtonDB in some cases.

The real tests of quality I care about generally aren't clearly represented in the Steam Verified categories anyways, namely:
  • Does the game properly support 16:10 Aspect Ratio at 800p display or are things rendered off-screen/have black bars Top&Bottom
  • Is the game designed for Controller input or will you have to use the touchpad as a Mouse to get things done
  • Is the UI scalable or will it be hard to read/get clear screen space
  • Does the game run at a stable 60FPS while maintaining respectable settings for a good presentation
  • How robust is the Offline play support/what kind of 3rd party tie (The crappy new EA launcher) is required
 
CommodoreKong

CommodoreKong

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,197
NovumVeritas said:
Great to see 7100 games verified, but that isn't really an indicator unfortunately.

Read here on Era, that some Steam Deck OS updates or Steam Deck Steam Updates have broken some games, which were Steam Deck verfied before. Nice number, but this can change with the next big update.
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There's also games that are listed as unsupposted that work fine on the Deck. I've played Solasta: Crown of the Magister for more than 30 hour on my Steam Deck and it's listed as unsupported.
 
NovumVeritas

NovumVeritas

Member
Oct 26, 2017
9,708
Berlin
CommodoreKong said:
There's also games that are listed as unsupposted that work fine on the Deck. I've played Solasta: Crown of the Magister for more than 30 hour on my Steam Deck and it's listed as unsupported.
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Yeah, that's what I mean.
I know that Quake 1 Remastered has also an ?, the game is running fine on the Deck. I am not sure why this hasn't changed as of yet. Star Ocean 6 is listed as unsupported but you can start and play, only need to change the Proton version to experimental, so you don't have graphic glitches but still works.
 

electroaffe

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,399
Berlin
Fawz said:
I've found that just about every game I've tried boots up fine and controls properly after tweaking an input profile, regardless of the Verified status in Steam or even ProtonDB in some cases.

The real tests of quality I care about generally aren't clearly represented in the Steam Verified categories anyways, namely:
  • Does the game properly support 16:10 Aspect Ratio at 800p display or are things rendered off-screen/have black bars Top&Bottom
  • Is the game designed for Controller input or will you have to use the touchpad as a Mouse to get things done
  • Is the UI scalable or will it be hard to read/get clear screen space
  • Does the game run at a stable 60FPS while maintaining respectable settings for a good presentation
  • How robust is the Offline play support/what kind of 3rd party tie (The crappy new EA launcher) is required
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Most of them are represented.

Verified:
- 720p or 800p
- full controller support
- UI text has to be legible
- all middleware (launchers) have to support Proton and be navigable with controller

60fps as an requirement would be pretty overkill considering that most PS4/One/Switch games run in 30fps on their respective consoles.

It's not perfect and sometimes the category is wrong imo or at least debatable but they are doing a pretty good job testing thousands of PC games.
 
IMCaprica

IMCaprica

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Aug 1, 2019
10,295
This is good, but games need two things:
  • An indication of how well it runs, not just that it runs.
  • Updated details after every patch.
 
dude

dude

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,831
Tel Aviv
IMCaprica said:
This is good, but games need two things:
  • An indication of how well it runs, not just that it runs.
  • Updated details after every patch.
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1 is exactly the difference between Playable and Verified, no?
2 would be nice, but considering the amount of games seems unfeasible to do so after every patch on every single verified game.
I think a user-complaint system to prioritize re-checking games should be good though.
 
Tobor

Tobor

Died as he lived: wrong about Doritos
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Oct 25, 2017
31,570
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The amount of games I have wanted to play and been unable to has been...0.

For my particular tastes, it's practically perfect as is.
 

Kaydigi

Member
Apr 25, 2019
1,027
Metal Slug 1
Shock Troopers 1
Street Fighter x Tekken

I hope these three titles get patches in 2023.
 
Roxas

Roxas

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
4,245
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Man I'd like to buy one but it only being sold on Steam makes it really hard for me to buy it through an importer. Really interested in the market, Steam is doing wonders on Proton
 
IMCaprica

IMCaprica

Member
Aug 1, 2019
10,295
dude said:
1 is exactly the difference between Playable and Verified, no?
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Kind of. When you select "details" they give you a very limited breakdown of what works and what doesn't. So things like the keyboard not working natively on the software side are listed, but the actual potential issues with how a game runs are not.

Midnight Suns runs, but it's also crashed on me before the main menu loads 50% of the time. It also chugs at the startup screens that play before the main menu is loaded.
 
Biosnake

Biosnake

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,699
My goal in 2023 is to play almost all of the AAA releases I have interest in on my Deck.

And guess what, they will almost all work and work well.
 
Katmeister

Katmeister

Banned
May 1, 2021
2,434
IMCaprica said:
This is good, but games need two things:
  • An indication of how well it runs, not just that it runs.
  • Updated details after every patch.
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Having to accept performance drops with handhelds is just the nature of the beast. If the game runs at 720p30 and has no control issues that's totally worthy of the verified label imo. I started playing Elden Ring on my gaming laptop because I wanted 60fps but I don't disagree with Steam that is verified-worthy on Deck.
 
currytan

currytan

Member
Sep 6, 2018
185
Leona Lewis said:
Wait what!?!? I thought it was still essentially unplayable because of the anti-cheat software.

ahhhh let me download
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The only problem it had was that the game worked better when installed on a SD card instead of SSD due to something related to the filesystem differences between both. If you need help or anything ping me and I'll try to find that information again (I'm on the phone right now and internet isn't collaborating at all ;_;).
 
Leona Lewis

Leona Lewis

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,082
currytan said:
The only problem it had was that the game worked better when installed on a SD card instead of SSD due to something related to the filesystem differences between both. If you need help or anything ping me and I'll try to find that information again (I'm on the phone right now and internet isn't collaborating at all ;_;).
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I'll see how it runs on the SSD and investigate if it's buggy.

you don't even know how happy you made me today omg
 
Fadewise

Fadewise

Member
Nov 5, 2017
3,210
I don't like that Valve is granting the Verified status to games like Dark Souls II that don't support cloud saves. This is such a critical aspect of being able to use the Steam Deck in conjunction with a desktop PC that it's misleading to classify these games the same as stuff that fully supports that; I would rather them give a supported-but-not-verified status to games that are missing easy save syncing.
 
IMCaprica

IMCaprica

Member
Aug 1, 2019
10,295
Katmeister said:
Having to accept performance drops with handhelds is just the nature of the beast. If the game runs at 720p30 and has no control issues that's totally worthy of the verified label imo. I started playing Elden Ring on my gaming laptop because I wanted 60fps but I don't disagree with Steam that is verified-worthy on Deck.
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I'm simply suggesting they specify what the performance issues are. It's not even really about performance drops mid-game. I think it's silly that there's currently no distinction between a game that runs without issue (or with frame rate issues) and a game that technically does run…eventually…when it's not crashing on startup.
 
kimbo99

kimbo99

Member
Feb 21, 2021
4,960
I have already tempered my expectations around verified games. The task of going back and checking all games on Steam seems very ambitious. With that being said, most games that I've played or wanted to play are playable or there is a workaround.
 

sdornan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
713
Fadewise said:
I don't like that Valve is granting the Verified status to games like Dark Souls II that don't support cloud saves. This is such a critical aspect of being able to use the Steam Deck in conjunction with a desktop PC that it's misleading to classify these games the same as stuff that fully supports that; I would rather them give a supported-but-not-verified status to games that are missing easy save syncing.
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I agree. Both my DS1 and DS2 saves got deleted because I just assumed they supported Steam Cloud saves.
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,873
The most important thing for the Deck and Steam in general would be a NO EXTERNAL LAUNCHER mandate. Those things have ruined so many games with little to no enduser benefit.

I also support making cloud saves a requirement for Deck verification.
 
cardboardboxer

cardboardboxer

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,952
Love this for Steam Deck owners, and frankly this is the effort that should have been undertaken before Valve tried to make Steamboxes a thing.

Would actually love for this effort to be brought to something like a Steam OS with Big Picture Mode like they used to have, would be cool to have a NUC next to my other consoles to play less demanding titles in my Steam library on a TV.
 
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