Valve reveals the most played Steam Deck games of 2025, with just two new entries in the top 10
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2026 has arrived, and that means we can look back at the biggest and best games of 2025, thanks to the latest stats from popular PC gaming platform Steam. There were plenty of new games for Steam Deck owners to sink their teeth into throughout the year, though it’s safe to say that the majority of popular titles remain old fan-favorites.
Steam Deck’s top played games in 2025
Valve’s top-played list among Steam Deck users is publicly available. Based on stats covering January 3, 2025, to January 2, 2026, Stardew Valley tops the list, with the two new titles in 2025 being Hollow Knight: Silksong and Megabonk. The release of Silksong also brought attention back to the original Hollow Knight, which jumped a massive 25 positions. Hades also enjoyed a healthy playerbase while Hades II left early access and got a full launch back in September.
While just two of the ten top games were new to 2025, there were some notable releases popular with Steam Deck owners. This includes the Game of the Year winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which was the 23rd most popular title on Steam Deck in 2025 – it achieved ‘Verified’ status following its big win. Other picks include BALL x PIT, Dispatch, and PEAK. In total, a quarter (25) of the top 100 games were brand-new additions to the list.
More good news is that every single title is available for a discount price during the ongoing Steam Winter Sale, which kicked off on December 18 last year. The event is still live until January 5, so there’s still some time to grab some new games for your Steam Deck for a fraction of the price. Alternative stores such as Green Man Gaming are also running a Holiday Sale (until January 9), with many great titles available for under $10.
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It’s fair to say that the Steam Deck remains the most popular PC gaming handheld, despite a number of competitors in the past couple of years. Many developers are keen to support the device and earn ‘Verified’ status – developer Adrian Chmielarz even said that supporting the Steam Deck “actually makes your game better”.
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