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Valve has just released their Steam Year in Review for 2024, detailing how the platform faired over the past financial year. Think of it as their annual shareholders meeting, even though they aren't a publicly traded company and have no shareholders.

While there's a lot of information in the review about how Steam itself has been fairing in regards to improving usability for consumers and developers, there's also a fair bit about how the Steam Deck is performing as well.

SteamYearInReview24

Here are some of the highlights for Steam Deck for 2024:

  • New Continent Launch: Steam Deck finally received a launch in Australia

  • New Steam Deck Model: Steam Deck OLED received a White Limited Edition

  • Software Improvements: Improvements in Proton and SteamOS saw previously broken games supported and newer games quickly being patched to work within a couple of days of release

  • Branching Out: SteamOS gained support for devices other than the Steam Deck

  • Ever-Increasing Compatibility: Over 17,000 games are now rated as Playable or Verified on the Steam Deck according to Valve's testing (that number is actually about 18,000 now)

  • Steam Deck Sees Growth in Usage: Steam users spent 330 million hours playing on their Steam Decks, an increase of 64% over 2023

  • Most Played Games on Steam Deck: Balatro, Black Myth Wukong, Palworld, GTA V, Halo: MCC, and Stardew Valley were among the most played games on Steam Deck

  • Game Recording: The Game Recording feature entered beta in June and was fully released in November, finally bringing some feature parity with basically every other device out there. It is a very handy tool, especially for us at SDHQ when we want to grab footage of a game! It also helps you show off funny bugs and sick moves to your friends and community!
GameRecordingSteam

They finish the Steam Deck portion of their review by saying that the future is bright for hardware at Valve, so clearly they're indicating they have no intention of slowing down on the hardware front, a good sign that a future Steam Deck successor is still the plan for Valve.

In general news for Steam itself, the platform hit over 39 million concurrent users during December 2024 and has since reached over 40 million concurrent users, double the record that the platform had at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020.

There were also plenty of general improvements on the platform, such as the recent changes to how game demos are handled, as well as the highlighting of DLC for games you already own, which can be pretty useful as DLC could be a bit hidden before.

If you want to read through the full Year In Review report yourself, including all the non-Steam Deck-related news then head on over to this link.

If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got you covered!

Oliver Stogden
Oliver began playing video games at an early age, starting with the SNES console and Commodore Amiga computer. Nowadays, his interest is in the future of portable technology, such as handheld gaming systems, portable power stations/banks, and portable monitors. And seeing just how far we can push these devices.
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