Steam Deck has barely outsold N-Gage as sales cast doubt on Xbox handheld plans

New data has revealed sales figures for PC gaming handhelds across the board, which even collectively haven’t surpassed Sony’s failed PS Vita.

In the conversation around gaming handhelds, people usually highlight the Nintendo Switch and Valve’s Steam Deck as the big success stories in the market today.

The success of the Switch is undisputed, with the console having surpassed 150 million units sold, trailing only the Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2 as the best-selling console ever. Valve, meanwhile, has always been vague about sales for the Steam Deck, claiming it had sold ‘multiple millions’ back in November 2023.

But now, a new report has shed light on exactly how much of the market the Steam Deck and other PC gaming handhelds occupy, and it’s a mere drop in the ocean in comparison.

According to data from market research firm IDC, which uses supply chains to estimate how many handheld gaming systems have shipped worldwide, PC gaming handhelds (namely the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw) have collectively shipped just under six million units since 2022.

According to estimates by The Verge, the Steam Deck makes up the lion’s share of this, with upwards of 3.7 million units shipped in the three years since it launched in February 2022 – although since these are only estimates it may have crossed the 4 million mark by this point.

Notably, the IDC doesn’t expect the PC handheld market to grow in any significant way this year, with the research firm forecasting just under 2 million shipments in 2025. This is an improvement over 2024 (1.4 million) but a drop from 2023 (2.8 million).

Speaking to the outlet, AMD gaming marketing boss Frank Azor described the IDC’s numbers as ‘amazing’, adding: ‘This didn’t exist three years ago; we went from nothing, zero, to incremental category creation in the millions of units.’

That seems a rather hyperbolic reaction though, given the very small numbers of the last few years and the fact that the market already seemed to peak in 2023.

For comparison, if the Steam Deck has shipped around 4 million units, this is lower than sales for the PS Vita, which was considered a flop by Sony. The PS Vita is estimated to have sold 10-15 million units, a sharp decline from the PSP’s 80 million units.

The Steam Deck’s numbers are more comparable to the PlayStation Portal, which has sold roughly 2 million units so far, and the Nokia N-Gage which reportedly sold 3 million.

Valve is probably making enough money through its Steam storefront to justify any hardware ventures, but it does raise queries over Microsoft’s hopes in the handheld space, if it opts to pursue a similar PC-like device as part of its next generation plans.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer seems especially keen on the idea, and has hinted at it multiple times, while Sony is also rumoured to be considering a new handheld console in light of the Switch’s success.

Any future handhelds from Sony and Microsoft will likely surpass the Steam Deck on marketing power alone (Valve’s system is not available through most retailers and difficult to obtain at all outside of the US), but both companies will likely need to offer something beyond just technical power to rival Nintendo’s grip over the handheld space.

Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.

To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.

For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

ArrowMORE: PS5 Pro sales fall behind PS4 Pro in the US as console sales plummet

ArrowMORE: How Nintendo Switch 2 must reinvent 3D Mario for the Astro Boy era

ArrowMORE: Nintendo Switch 2 UK price will be £80 more than the original says analyst