How big is the handheld PC gaming industry?

This article includes sales estimates for different handhelds from market research firm IDC.

They place total handheld PC sales of the Steam Deck, RoG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw at almost 6 million units for the past 3 years. It’s estimated that the Steam Deck makes up between 3.7 to 4 million of those sales, more than all the other major handheld PC manufacturers combined.

  • penquin@lemm.ee
    0·
    2 months ago

    I still think Valve need to release the SD2 soon before these manufacturers eat their dinner. I know steam will still make money when these manufacturers succeed, but still, a SD2 is a must.

  • Technus@lemmy.zip
    0·
    2 months ago

    The Steam Deck arguably created the handheld PC gaming market.

    Sure, there were handhelds before, but almost no one gave a shit about them. Gamedevs certainly didn’t.

    It wasn’t enough just having the hardware exist, it’s also the massive amount of effort Valve put in to ensure compatibility with a ridiculous number of titles.

    The renewed emphasis on controller support in games alone has significant ramifications for the wider community. A lot of players with physical disabilities use input devices that map to controller actions.

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      2 months ago

      “renewed emphasis on controller support”

      Eh… I’ve been gaming with a controller on my PC for a very very long time without any issues…

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          2 months ago

          What I meant is that there hasn’t been more emphasis on controller support since the Deck released, games release on consoles and PC so they already support controllers and games that don’t are just made easier to play with the track pads on the Deck, they’re still just as shit to play on a regular controller.

  • Valentine Angell@thelemmy.clubEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    A year and a half ago, I was looking for a handheld gaming device. I narrowed my search down to the SteamDeck and the Switch. In the end, I picked the Switch as I’ve had much more fun and entertainment with the Nintnedo environment vs the PC gaming world. I really, really want to love the SteamDeck and its abilities but it’s just not happening for me yet. Can someone sell me?

    • Björn Tantau@swg-empire.de
      0·
      2 months ago

      You can play those Switch games plus a ton of other games on the Deck. Apart from technical capability there are 0 restrictions on what you can do with your Deck. You can play Steam games, GOG games, Epic games, Nintendo games, PlayStation games, Commodore 64 games, Arcade games, etc.

    • Zedd @lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      2 months ago

      I have a couple of uses for my steamdeck. The vast majority of the time it sits in my living room. I use it while I’m watching TV with my wife. The ability to pick it up, resume whatever I’m playing right where I left off is great.

      The other use is when I’m traveling. It’s smaller than a laptop, desktop mode is a fully functional Linux operating system, and it connects to any hdmi port with a small dock. That means I can use it to game, and connect it to the TV in the hotel room and watch whatever I want.