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.

  • thingsiplay@beehaw.org
    5·
    13 hours ago

    I still think Valve need to release the SD2 soon before these manufacturers eat their dinner.

    The other PC handhelds aren’t really competitors in the classical sense. Valve can (unlike the consoles) wait and release the Steam Deck 2 whenever it is ready. No need to rush and make it bad. Remember, most people buying a PC handheld to play PC games will probably install Steam. And it does not make any difference for Valve if they purchased the game on Steam Deck or any other PC system, as the price cut is the same across hardware.

    Sure, Valve wants to sell and control the PC handheld as much as possible. But bringing out any new device is not that urgent right now. Valve got already what they want; the Steam Deck is the default target by developers, when it comes to PC handheld.