It’s been over a year since the Raspberry Pi 5 was released, and among its many use cases, the demand for Steam Link has been a recurring topic online. For context, Steam Link started as a small device that allowed you to stream games from your PC to your TV, requiring a strong internet connection, an ethernet cable, and some setup tweaks. Valve quietly discontinued this piece of hardware back in November 2018, and now, Steam Link can be found as an app on Steam’s official store.
For those eager to use their Raspberry Pi 5 as an alternative to the OG Steam Link, Valve and the Raspberry Pi team have officially announced Steam Link support for the RPi 5. With the latest Steam Link update and the RPi 5’s hardware enhancements, you can now stream games at 4K 60 FPS or 1080p 240 FPS.
Why did it take a whole year to get Steam Link working on Raspberry Pi 5?
Since Steam Link has supported previous Raspberry Pi models, it might seem confusing why the latest one suddenly lacked compatibility. However, there is a solid reason behind Steam Link not working on the RPi 5 initially. Up until the Raspberry Pi 4, this small SBC computer relied on Broadcom APIs for GPU interaction. With the RPi 5, however, the team decided to shift to standard Linux APIs for GPU support. This change caused compatibility issues with Steam Link, which still relied on the Broadcom APIs.
This is where the smart folks at Raspberry and Steam come into play. With the help of experts like Sam Lantinga from Valve—developer of SDL, a simple multimedia programming library—they aimed to try “a different approach to utilize the Raspberry Pi hardware as efficiently as possible“. This effort led to the release of Steam Link v1.3.13, which removed all dependencies and now allows users to use Steam Link with the RPi5 without any compatibility issues.
Raspberry Pi 5
- Console and Desktop environment
- Supports H.264 at 1080p, 144 FPS
- Supports HEVC at 4K, 60 FPS and 1080p, 240 FPS
Raspberry Pi 4
- Console and Desktop environment
- Supports H.264 and HEVC at 1080p, 60 FPS (30 FPS if the display is at 4K resolution)
Raspberry Pi 3
- Console environment
- Supports H.264 at 1080p, 60 FPS
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
- Console environment
- Supports H.264 at 1080p, 60 FPS
Wired networking is highly recommended for the best streaming experience.
How to use Steam Link on your Raspberry Pi 5
To get Steam Link running on your Raspberry Pi, all you have to do is run a few commands in the terminal, which include the following:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install steamlink
steamlinkMake sure to follow these commands in sequence to successfully install and open the Steam Link app, allowing you to enjoy higher supported qualities like 4K 60 FPS and 1080p 240 FPS. Interestingly, the current Steam Link page on Steam’s official store still doesn’t list the Raspberry Pi 5 under its supported devices, only going up to the RPi 4. However, this should be updated soon, as the Raspberry Pi team has officially announced support in a recent blog post.
Here’s a video from the official Raspberry Pi 5 team showcasing the Steam Link support in full action:
