It’s silly to compare Switch 2 sales to Steam Deck sales.
The Switch 2 is a locked-down, vertically integrated platform. There are no ROG Switch 2s. No Lenovo Switch 2s. No Switch laptops or tower PCs with discrete GPUs. If you want to play Mario Kart World, your only option is to buy a Switch 2. Period.
Steam Deck, by contrast, isn’t a platform. It’s just one hardware option—one entry point into the sprawling, open ecosystem known as PC gaming.
Every year, around 245 million PCs are shipped globally. If even 20–25% of those are gaming-focused, that’s 49–61 million gaming PCs annually. Steam Deck is a sliver of that. So of course it won’t outsell a console that’s the only gateway to a major IP.
But that’s exactly the point.
PC gaming is too decentralized for any single device to dominate. The last “PC” that did was the Commodore 64, which sold 12.5–17 million units over 12 years because it was a self-contained platform, unlike modern Windows, Mac, or Linux machines.
That the Steam Deck has sold 4 million units despite competing with every other gaming PC in existence is remarkable. It didn’t just sell—it legitimized a category. Handheld PC gaming is now a thing. That’s why Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI have followed. Even Microsoft is getting in, optimizing Windows for handhelds—something they would never have done if the Steam Deck didn’t hold their feet to the fire.
So no, Steam Deck didn’t outsell the Switch 2. It didn’t need to.
It won by changing the landscape.
This is such a wild take. « I buy the steam deck because I am informed and smart, they buy the switch 2 because they’re nostalgic impulsive morons ».
Has it ever occurred to you that not everybody is you, and people have different tastes ? Some gamers want to play the latest COD, others are Final Fantasy super fan, and others want to play Zelda and Mario. Most people even just play on a smartphone! (Disgusting, I know).
Your lack of basic awareness of what an individual is is astonishing. May I never meet and have to talk to someone like you again.
I think you’re missing the point.
The steam deck is still relatively niche and unknown compared to a switch.
The namesake and brand recognition for nintendo completely dwarfs that of the steam deck.
More people are going to buy a switch on impulse and brandname alone so buying a steam deck is almost always going to be an informed decision as in it won’t be much of an impulse purchase.
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One way to get offended and misinterpret a sentence. Lol no one wants to talk to you anyways lil bro.
What’s most common doesn’t aply to everyone, just to most. But your reasoning didn’t favor the point you were trying to make, and pushed the notion that I’m disgusted at anyone playing on a smartphone (I play on mine too, so no). So yeah, just as you said, even if some people buy a Switch with other reasons in mind, most will because they want to stick to where their Zeldas and Marios are. Some may even get triggered whenever someone posts info about how the Switch and Switch 2 won’t get you the best bang for your buck and therefore might not be the most well informed purchases you can make for your gaming needs.