Steam Deck Verified program keeps growing as officially playable games surpass 25,000

Valve introduced the Steam Deck Verified to make it easy for players to navigate through the vast Steam library. While the system has its flaws, it still stands as a proposed baseline for what the hardware of the gaming handheld is capable of handling.

After around 4 years since the release of the Steam Deck, Valve seems to be maintaining the program quite well. As data from SteamDB points, over 31,000 Steam games have been officially categorized for the gaming handheld. This is around 19% of the total titles available on the storefront.

Among the over 31 thousand categorized games, over 25,000 titles are either tagged as Verified or Playable. For reference, the former is a label that says that the game will run flawlessly on the gaming handheld (upgraded JSAUX dock for the device curr. $32.79 on Amazon), without requiring any tweaks. As for the latter, it notes that there's proper compatibility, but it may take manual tweaking.

However, not all Steam Deck Verified games run as flawlessly as Valve claims they do. Games like Baldur's Gate 3, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and Hellblade 2 have the Verified tag, but they require manual tweaking for a smooth experience. Likewise, just because Valve may have deemed a game Unsupported doesn't mean the title won't run on the gaming handheld.

Many games with the Steam Deck Unsupported tag are actually playable, such as Silent Hill 2. Now, on Valve's defense, the company said that it categorizes each game for the gaming handheld by considering a strict set of requirements, and it's understandable why some titles end up with the Unsupported tag but are technically playable.

Regardless, this continuous progress on the program once again shows Valve's commitment to maintaining its product, and it will be interesting to see if Valve continues to do the same when the Steam Deck 2 arrives.