Valve has a dedicated verification system for the Steam Deck to determine how well a game runs on the handheld, which is handy when you don’t want to commit to buying until you know it runs well, especially given the handheld’s aging hardware. While it isn’t always perfectly accurate, it’s still a useful reference. And now, the system has reached a new milestone – 25,000 games.

If you head over to SteamDB, a database that tracks the entire Steam catalog, and apply the Steam Deck Verified and Playable filters, you’ll see that there are now over 25,000 games marked as Verified or Playable. This is a significant increase from around 20,000 titles back in June last year. It shows that more developers are optimizing their games for the Steam Deck, which is great news for handheld gamers. In fact, one developer, Witchfire, claims that supporting the device “actually makes your game better”.

25,000 verified and playable games on Steam Deck

For those new to Valve’s handheld, Verified games are supposed to run smoothly on the Steam Deck out of the box without any performance issues. Playable games, on the other hand, require some tweaks and adjustments from the devs for optimal performance to reach Verified status, but should run just fine. The verification system also includes an Unsupported category for games that are not expected to run at all, while ‘Unknown’ denotes a game that has not yet been tested by Valve.

There are many newer, more powerful alternatives to the Steam Deck these days. Valve is waiting for a big generational uplift before committing to the Steam Deck 2, while rivals such as ASUS and Lenovo power through with new handhelds every year in the ROG Ally and Legion Go series, respectively. However, as long as Valve’s handheld remains the most popular, we imagine many devs will continue to support it as much as possible, especially given its close ties to the popular Steam platform.

Steam Deck’s verified system isn’t perfect

It is, however, important to keep in mind that the Verification system isn’t perfect. There are several games listed as Unsupported that actually run perfectly without any changes. At the same time, some Verified titles still suffer from performance issues. A good example is Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which was initially marked as Verified but later downgraded to Playable after users reported performance problems. It has since returned to Verified status after those issues were fixed.

While the verification system offers a general idea of how a game should perform, it’s always a good idea to check user reviews as well. ProtonDB is a valuable resource that gives users a space to explain exactly how a game performs, or offer workarounds and fixes for common compatibility problems on the Steam Deck. For example, Devil May Cry 4 is listed as Unsupported, but reports on ProtonDB confirm that it runs smoothly right out of the box.

About the Author

Abdul Haddi

Abdul is a tech writer and Editor for PC Guide, specializing in all things tech, gaming, and hardware.