Valve has supercharged its testing regime for the Steam Deck, and is testing roughly 3,000 games every six months. According to Steam-watchers Boiling Steam, Valve has now hit a grand total of 13,306 games tested for Steam Deck compatibility, with three-quarters of those games hitting either Verified or Playable status — which means around 10,000 games.
Just to clear up exactly what those terms mean, Verified is the highest tier of compatibility for the Steam Deck, and those games with this verification can be expected to work straight away, without need for additional tweaking from the user. Playable is the next rung down on the ladder, with games here likely having a few caveats that bar them from the top tier. These sorts of caveats can include needing to work with outside launchers, text that’s small on the Deck’s display, and setting up a custom controller scheme.
Verified and Playable games are the main draw for the Steam Deck, and it’s encouraging that Valve is putting so much into clearing so much of the Steam catalogue for Steam Deck compatibility. However, keep in mind that there are over 50,000 games on Steam, and while a number of those may not exactly be top sellers, it still means there are likely some of your favorites that fall into the untested or dreaded Unsupported category. However, of the current top ten games on Steam, only Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is classed as unsupported for the Deck.
While this is undoubtedly good news, there is a cloud to this silver lining. Boiling Steam has noted the overall number of Verified results is dropping over time, with more and more games being classed as "Playable" in their tests. The Steam Deck is also starting to show the limits of its hardware, with a number of Verified games displaying low frame rates despite their top tier classification.
If you’re looking to buy a Steam Deck, make sure you do your research before you buy. You can set filters in your Steam Library to display Verified and Playable games, and there’s also a Steam page where you can display the games which will work for you. You can also see Steam’s page of the top Deck games as a potential shopping list.
The Steam Deck is also not the only console in town. Check out our breakdown of how the Steam Deck stacks up against the ROG Ally to see which is best for you.