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.
The fact that the Nintendos are locked down, family friendly and with a reputation of good production quality (similar to Disney), are also important points for non-nerdy parents and casual gamers who don’t want to navigate the ocean of PC gaming and its risks.
good production quality… *looks at workbench with 12 cubbies of drifting joycons queued for unofficial repair
As you can see, I said “reputation”. I hate how little they innovate while still selling at premium, but similar to Disney, it is enough for the casual mass.
Those news of Wiimotes destroying TVs and not the other way around worked really well.
Their new premium price point is definitely going to put a dent in their family sales, though. That’s uncharted territory for them.
Meh, it amortizes over time. Switch 1 lasted 10 years
Switch 2 will probably be the same, buy the games now, play for 10 years sounds like a deal to the lowest common denominator in gaming
It lasted 8 years and sold as much as it did because it’s considerably cheaper than the competition, especially the Switch Lite at $200. We’ll see if the inevitable Switch 2 Lite moves as many units at $350.