Handheld gaming PCs are losing momentum
The Steam Deck showed in 2022 that PC games could run on a handheld the size of a Nintendo Switch, and Asus, Lenovo and others followed. Shipments peaked in 2023 and fell by nearly half in 2024, and nobody has published a count since.
Latest figure · 2025 so far
1.9 million
IDC's forecast for 2025 of 1,926,000, made in February 2025, before the Xbox-branded handheld was announced. It is not a count. Neither IDC nor anyone else has published an actual figure for 2025 or 2026.
Where it stands
IDC's estimates, published by The Verge, have shipments peaking at 2.9 million in 2023 and falling by nearly half in 2024. A second firm, Omdia, counts differently and forecast growth for 2025. Nobody has published a figure since. In 2026 a memory chip shortage pushed the Steam Deck's price up by as much as $300 and left it out of stock for months. The firmer change is in software: Valve now lets other makers ship SteamOS, and Lenovo was the first to do so. Linux touched 5% of Steam users in March 2026 and was back under 4% by August, and most of those users are on desktop PCs.
Shipments peaked in 2023 at 2.9 million and fell by nearly half in 2024. IDC's forecast for 2025 was under 2 million, still short of the peak.
*IDC's forecast for 2025 of 1,926,000, made in February 2025, before the Xbox-branded handheld was announced. It is not a count. Neither IDC nor anyone else has published an actual figure for 2025 or 2026.
SourceThe Verge, on IDC
| Year | Handheld gaming PCs shipped worldwide, millions, IDC estimates, by year |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.6 |
| 2023 | 2.9 |
| 2024 | 1.5 |
| 2025* | 1.9 |
Timeline
2022
The Steam Deck creates the category
Valve's Steam Deck, a handheld computer shaped like a games console that plays PC games, goes on sale in February 2022. IDC estimates 1.62 million handheld gaming PCs shipped that year, all of them Steam Decks.
2023
Rivals arrive and shipments reach 2.9 million
Asus's ROG Ally and Lenovo's Legion Go join the Steam Deck. IDC estimates 2,867,000 handheld gaming PCs shipped in 2023, with the Steam Deck upwards of half. It is still the highest year on record.
2024
Shipments fall by nearly half
IDC's estimate for 2024 is 1,485,000, with the Steam Deck at 48%. Over three years just under 6 million have shipped in total. 'It's small and it's not really growing,' The Verge concludes.
2025
Valve opens its operating system to other makers' handhelds
Valve announces that SteamOS, the system that runs the Steam Deck, will come on other companies' hardware. Lenovo's Legion Go S is the first handheld licensed to use it.
Omdia forecasts 2.3 million for the year, up 32%
A second research firm, Omdia, forecasts 2.3 million handheld gaming PCs sold in 2025, up from 1.7 million in 2024, and 4.7 million a year by 2029. It counts sales rather than shipments and a wider list of devices, so its figures do not match IDC's.
An Xbox-branded handheld goes on sale in 45 countries
The ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X, built by Asus and sold under Microsoft's Xbox brand, go on sale on 16 October 2025.
2026
The Steam Deck sells out as memory chips run short
The Steam Deck goes out of stock in the US and then most other regions. Valve's store blames shortages of memory and storage chips.
Circana's analyst says sales of the Xbox handheld fell away after a month
Mat Piscatella of Circana says the ROG Xbox Ally had a nice first month in the US, has since fallen sharply, and has not dented the Steam Deck. None of the companies publishes sales figures.
Linux passes 5% of Steam users, for one month
Valve's monthly survey of Steam users for March 2026 finds 5.33% running Linux, the family of systems that includes SteamOS. About a quarter of them are on SteamOS itself. The share had passed 3% only the previous October. The survey swings from month to month with the mix of languages among the people answering.
By August the Linux share is back under 4%
The August 2026 survey has Linux at 3.90% of Steam users. SteamOS is 21.07% of those, behind a spread of desktop Linux systems, so most of the people counted are on desktop PCs, not handhelds.
The Steam Deck comes back $240 to $300 pricier
The Steam Deck returns to Valve's US store at $789 and $949, up from $549 and $649, and sells out again. The Xbox Ally X and Legion Go 2 are selling above their list prices.
Nintendo reports 23.68 million Switch 2 consoles sold in about a year
Nintendo's Switch 2, the handheld most people buy, reaches 23.68 million units by 30 June 2026, about thirteen months after launch. Handheld gaming PCs shipped just under 6 million in their first three years.
Consequences
012025
Too few are sold for chip makers to design parts for them
Sean Hollister of The Verge argues that with as few as 2 million Windows handhelds shipped in two years, it is no surprise that AMD and Intel are not spending heavily on chips made for them. Without better chips the devices improve slowly.
022025
A category made from nothing
Frank Azor is AMD's gaming marketing chief, and AMD makes the chips inside the Steam Deck, the ROG Ally and the Legion Go S, so he has a stake in the category. He puts the same numbers differently. 'We went from nothing, zero, to incremental category creation in the millions,' he tells The Verge.
032025
Windows is what holds the rivals back
James McWhirter of Omdia says Windows 11 is poorly suited to handheld play. He sees a reworked Windows and the Xbox name as the way to reach buyers beyond enthusiasts, which is why Valve offering its own system to other makers matters.
042026
The memory shortage has wiped out the price advantage
Edward Chester of PCGamesN points out that after its price rise the Steam Deck costs more than several more powerful rivals. Its low price had been the main reason to buy one.
Objections
Counterpoint2025
Another research firm sees steady growth
Omdia's published figures only go up: 1.7 million in 2024, 2.3 million forecast for 2025, 4.7 million a year by 2029. It has never published a figure for 2023 on the same basis, so a reader of Omdia alone would not know the category had shrunk. The two firms count different things, shipments against sales, and different lists of devices.
Counterpoint2025
IDC's count leaves devices out
The Verge notes that IDC's figures do not include handhelds from Chinese makers such as GPD, Ayaneo and OneXPlayer. They are also estimates of what makers shipped to shops, built from supply-chain data, not counts of what people bought.
Counterpoint2026
Nobody has published a figure since 2024
The last actual figure in public is for 2024. Valve, Asus, Lenovo and Microsoft publish no unit sales. What is known about 2026 is indirect: stock-outs, price rises and one analyst's remarks on a podcast. Notebookcheck, reporting those remarks, notes that the companies have not made recent sales data public.
What to watch
2027
The first actual figures for 2025 and 2026
Early 2027, if IDC or Omdia repeat the timing of their earlier releases. IDC forecast 1,926,000 for 2025 and Omdia 2.3 million. The actual figures will show which was closer, and what the memory shortage did to 2026.
2029
Omdia's 4.7 million
2029, the year by which Omdia forecast 4.7 million handheld gaming PCs would be sold annually. It made the forecast in August 2025, before memory prices jumped.
Further reading
- ReportingAsus ROG Xbox Ally sales stall with Steam Deck still the preferred handheld gaming PCnotebookcheck.net
- PrimarySteamOS expands beyond Steam Deckstore.steampowered.com
- CommunityPC Gaming Handhelds just keep getting bettertiktok.com
Where to follow it Omdia games research, The Verge hardware desk, Circana (Piscatella), Valve Steam Hardware Survey
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