Dec 13, 2024

Every The Game Awards 2024 Winner and Nominee Tested on Steam Deck

Oliver Stogden

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It's that time of year again. Every December, our main man, Geoff Keighley, hosts The Game Awards, and this year, we have 51 different games nominated for various awards. But how do these games play on the Steam Deck? Well, that's a question you don't have to worry about because we've done all the work for you in testing out each of the nominees to see how they run on the Steam Deck.

So, without further ado, let's check out all the nominated games and winners for this year's The Game Awards. We've sorted these games by the Steam Deck compatibility score that we've awarded them, which is shown next to the game titles, with GOTY nominees given priority:

The Game Awards 2024 Nominees

Game of the Year Nominees:

Here are the games (and DLC) that have been nominated for Game of the Year by The Game Awards 2024.

Balatro (5/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Independent Game, Debut Indie, Mobile Game
Won: Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, Best Mobile Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

Balatro just works on the Steam Deck, with the game easily playable at 60 or 90 FPS depending on your Steam Deck model, with minimal battery drain and easy-to-use controls. You should have no worries about picking this one up to play on your Steam Deck, as per our review.

Metaphor: ReFantazio (4/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Narrative, Art Direction, Score/Music, RPG
Won: Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best RPG
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

We reviewed Metaphor: ReFantazio when it launched back in October, and were pleased to see that it ran just fine on the Steam Deck, allowing for an almost constant 30 FPS lock even with higher settings. The controls work great, and this is another game that you shouldn't worry about picking up on the Deck.

Black Myth: Wukong (3/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Art Direction, Action Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

In our review, we found that Black Myth: Wukong is playable with some visual compromises. The controls work great and you can stick to 30 FPS for the majority of the time aside from some cutscenes.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (3/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Art Direction, RPG
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

While our review of the base Elden Ring game rings true for some of the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, we did find that the DLC is a bit more demanding. Still, the game remains playable at 30 FPS with some visual compromises and still looks great.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (0/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Narrative, Score/Music, Audio, Performance (Briana White), RPG
Won: Best Score and Music
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a PlayStation 5 exclusive title. The only way to play this on the Steam Deck would be to stream it from your PS5 using a program like Chiaki4Deck. It will be releasing on PC next month.

Astro Bot (0/5)

Nominated For Best: GOTY, Game Direction, Art Direction, Score/Music, Audio, Action/Adventure Game, Family Game
Won: GOTY, Best Game Direction, Best Action/Adventure Game, Best Family Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5, Astro Bot is exclusive to PlayStation 5 for now, although Sony often brings their 1st party games to PC after a couple of years. We'll have to see with Astro Bot, given its heavy reliance on PlayStation IP. It is a great game though, and one we hope to see come to PC in the future. For now, you could always stream the game from your PS5 using Chiaki4Deck.

The Best of the Rest:

Here are the rest of the nominees for various categories at The Game Awards 2024.

Animal Well (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Independent Game, Debut Indie
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

This surreal Metroidvania worked excellently on the Steam Deck when we reviewed it back in May of this year, with very low battery drain and a 60 FPS lock. You just might need to manually lock the GPU to 800 MHz to get the best out of your battery. Other than that, you can't fault how it runs on our favorite handheld device.

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Fighting Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising ran flawlessly in our tests, with the game playable at the highest graphics settings while still maintaining 60 FPS, and a power draw that tended to be around 12-13W, meaning you can get a good amount of playtime. The controls also work well.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Independent Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes performs very well on Steam Deck, with the game able to run at 90 FPS with minimal power draw. There are some odd design choices when it comes to the controls on a controller, however. You might also have to force an older Proton version for the best experience. You can read our review of the game here.

Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Fighting Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

Marvel Vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics has a very long name. Fortunately, that doesn't stop it from being excellent on the Steam Deck. Great controls, great performance, and minimal power drain make this a top-tier title to play on the go. You can check out our review of the collection here.

MultiVersus (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Fighting Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

The game requires a touchscreen to install some Visual C++ components at launch, as is common for some Unreal Engine games. You'll also need to use the touchscreen to control the web browser to create a WB Games account if you don't already have one. You should change from Windowed Fullscreen to Fullscreen to aid with reading text. Once you're in the game, however, you can run at high settings and still maintain 60 FPS, the online modes also work fine.

NEVA (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Art Direction, Games for Impact, Independent Game
Won: Games for Impact
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

NEVA is a great game to play on the Steam Deck, you can easily play it at 90 FPS, the power draw stays below 10W, and the game controls beautifully. Plus the visuals pop on an OLED screen. There are no worries about picking this one up on the Steam Deck.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Accessibility, Action/Adventure Game
Won: Innovation in Accessibility
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

One of Ubisoft's best Steam Deck games to play. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck, hitting 60 and 90 FPS with ease. I do recommend keeping it to 60 for battery life, but overall, it is one of the best Metroidvania to play on the go.

UFO 50 (5/5)

Nominated For Best: Independent Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 5/5

UFO 50 works flawlessly on the Steam Deck, with very minimal power draw and a solid 60 FPS throughout. The game has no in-game settings to adjust, so you can just boot it up and enjoy some retro minigame fun!

Age of Mythology: Retold (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Best Sim/Strategy
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Age of Mythology: Retold has great controller support for both gameplay and menus, the performance is also pretty good. The game defaults to medium settings, which is probably where you want it, as further into a game, the CPU becomes the limiting factor. Towards the late game in a 12-player match, expect FPS to drop into the high 20s regardless of settings, so you might want to limit the game to 30 FPS and keep the player limit to 8 or less.

Closer the Distance (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Games for Impact
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

If you keep the settings low, you can enjoy a locked 30 FPS experience here, along with a pretty long battery life. The game's controller support is also excellent. You can check out our full review here.

Diablo 4 (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Accessibility, Ongoing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

We gave Diablo 4 a 4/5 in our review last year, stating that the game is well-optimized, and you can expect a 45 FPS experience with decent battery life and excellent controller support. The game has since moved to Steam as well, so there's no need to mess around with installing BNet.

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Fighting Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero might be the best Dragon Ball game to date, and it's made even better by the fact that it's playable on the Steam Deck. The game struggles to hold 60 FPS on the Steam Deck and will go into slow motion if it drops below 60 FPS, but thanks to a simple fix in our review of the game, you can run the game at 40 FPS and get rid of the slow motion effect. You won't be able to play online, but you will be able to enjoy the game's single-player just fine.

Final Fantasy XIV (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Ongoing Game, Community Support
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Final Fantasy XIV works pretty well on the Steam Deck, with FPS staying above 40 FPS even on higher settings. It has decent controls for an MMO of this style, which might not be surprising seeing as the game is on PlayStation. You'll need to use a trackpad for the mouse during the Square Enix account stuff, but otherwise, the game runs great on the Steam Deck.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Sim/Strategy Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess works quite well on the Steam Deck, with some flexibility in whether you want a smoother experience, more battery life, or greater visual quality. The controls also work just fine on the Steam Deck. You can check out our review of the game and our recommended settings.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Narrative, RPG
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth works well on the Steam Deck, with the game being able to handle both some nice visuals and 40 FPS, with the flexibility to increase visual quality or battery life by dropping to 30 FPS. The controls also work perfectly on the Steam Deck. You can read our full review here.

NBA 2K25 (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Sports/Racing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

NBA 2K25 ran surprisingly well on the Steam Deck when I reviewed it last month, even allowing you to play at 60 FPS with the right settings, or getting a clearer picture and running at 40 FPS. The controls are great, and the game works online just fine. It can be pretty hard on the battery, but other than that, it's a fine game to play on the Steam Deck.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Games for Impact
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

Tales of Kenzera: Zau actually has a Steam Deck preset for its graphics options, which gives you a fairly stable 60 FPS experience with low settings, although you do get dips as low as 50 at points, it doesn't affect gameplay too much. The game sadly doesn't support 16:10 aspect ratios either, so you will get borders at the top and bottom of your screen. Controller support is excellent.

TEKKEN 8 (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Fighting Game, Multiplayer
Won: Best Fighting Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

With the correct settings, TEKKEN 8 can run at a smooth 60 FPS throughout, with only rare dips into the mid-50s in specific cases. This makes TEKKEN 8 perfectly playable on the Steam Deck, with good controls, and decent visuals, although your battery life won't be great. You can read our review of the game here.

The Plucky Squire (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Debut Indie Game, Family Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

We thought The Plucky Squire was a great little title, and while the Steam Deck performance was perhaps a little disappointing for what the game is, it does remain perfectly playable at 30 FPS, even going up to 45 FPS if you lower the settings. You can check out our review for our recommended settings.

TopSpin 2K25 (4/5)

Nominated For Best: Sports/Racing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 4/5

TopSpin 2K25 appears to work quite well on the Steam Deck, with the game able to maintain a locked 30 FPS in the matches I played, the controls work great, and the experience is smooth. There are some reports of crashes occasionally, but I didn't experience any when testing.

Baldur's Gate 3 (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Community Support
Won: Best Community Support
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

Baldur's Gate 3 was a hit when it launched, and we were all clamoring to see how it would run on our Steam Decks. With gradual improvements from patches, we reviewed the game back in April and found that it runs pretty well on the Steam Deck provided you keep your settings low. The game will struggle in some places in Act 3, but given the turn-based nature of the game, a few frame drops is an acceptable price to pay to experience this gem on the move. The game adapts surprisingly well to controllers.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Accessibility
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is playable on the Steam Deck, often staying above 30 FPS, with occasional dips under, but provided you keep the settings low and take advantage of FSR upscaling, you should be able to keep the game around 30 FPS during any fights. You can check out our first impressions of the game.

INDIKA (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Games for Impact
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

INDIKA is playable on the Steam Deck, but you can expect some drops below 30 FPS in certain areas of the game, and the text might be hard to read in some places. We would recommend playing this one on a desktop PC if you can, but it will work on the Steam Deck, as per our review.

Life is Strange: Double Exposure (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Performance (Hannah Telle), Games for Impact
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

Life is Strange: Double Exposure is playable on the Steam Deck, but you do miss out on some niceties. Expect drops below 30 FPS at points, and sometimes the characters won't quite look in place with the environment they're in due to lower-quality visuals. But the story is still enjoyable, and you have good controller support to boot. You can read our review here.

Manor Lords (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Debut Indie Game, Sim/Strategy Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

Manor Lords is playable on the Steam Deck, and we can get some visual niceties without compromising too much on performance. You will get some dips from 30 FPS, but given the style of the game, it's not a dealbreaker. The game has no controller support, however, so you'll need to configure a controller layout, but the game is fairly simple to control for a strategy game, and it's fairly easy to configure. You can read our early access review of the game here.

No Man's Sky (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Community Support
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

No Man's Sky's constant updates have earned it this nomination, and it also means it's quite hard to keep up to speed with how it runs on the Steam Deck. However, our review back in December 2022 found that it could stick to 30 FPS. I can confirm having played it more recently on a Steam Deck, that the game does remain fully playable and it controls well. This is a game we hope to review again with more depth in the future.

WWE 2K24 (3/5)

Nominated For Best: Sports/Racing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 3/5

This is a tough one, as the game appears to run fine when it comes to performance, with the game holding above 50 FPS even with 8 wrestlers in the arena, and the controls work just fine. However, I was unable to connect to the online servers on my Steam Deck, and other users are reporting crashes when using a Steam Deck. So although I didn't get any crashes myself, just be aware that it might happen and you can make use of Steam's refund policy if it does happen to you.

Frostpunk 2 (2/5)

Nominated For Best: Sim/Strategy
Won: Best Sim/Strategy Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 2/5

Frostpunk 2 was always going to be a bit messy on the Steam Deck. There's no controller support, so you do need a custom controller layout. The performance also isn't ideal with the frame rate in the 30s with low settings. We also found that you may experience crashes due to high RAM usage later on in the game. Check out our full review of the game.

Helldivers 2 (2/5)

Nominated For Best: Ongoing Game, Community Support, Action Game, Multiplayer
Won: Best Ongoing Game, Best Multiplayer Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 2/5

Helldivers 2 used to work well on the Steam Deck, with good controller support and a fairly stable 30 FPS experience at lower graphical settings. But it seems like newer updates may have raised the requirements and the game can be a little unstable on the Steam Deck nowadays. Regardless, you can check out our review of the game when it launched back in February.

Pacific Drive (2/5)

Nominated For Best: Debut Indie Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 2/5

While Pacific Drive seems to have received some optimizations since it launched, you will have to deal with sub-30 FPS moments as you progress through the game. The best you can do is set all settings to low, switch the screen mode to Fullscreen, and lower the resolution to 1152x720, this tends to keep the game at 25+ FPS, and you might find that playable, but I would recommend you stick to something more powerful than a Steam Deck to play this one.

Silent Hill 2 (2/5)

Nominated For Best: Narrative, Score/Music, Audio, Performance (Luke Roberts), Action/Adventure Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 2/5

As per our first impressions article for Silent Hill 2, the game does appear to be playable for the most part, but you can expect frequent dips below 30 FPS during play, and potentially even lower than that. But the game does control fine, and there have been patches since then aimed at optimization.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (2/5)

Nominated For Best: Action Game, Multiplayer
Steam Deck Compatibility: 2/5

While we would have dearly loved for Space Marine 2 to be playable on the Steam Deck, we sadly found in our review that the best way to play the game is at 24 FPS. Focus Entertainment did say that Steam Deck support would be coming this year, but that hasn't come to fruition yet, so we don't recommend you play this one on the Steam Deck.

Dragon's Dogma 2 (1/5)

Nominated For Best: RPG
Steam Deck Compatibility: 1/5

Unfortunately, Dragon's Dogma 2 still isn't playable on the Steam Deck. Even on the lowest settings with FSR set to Ultra Performance, you can see dips under 20 FPS, and the game is often running at slower than 30 FPS. The controls work great, and if performance is improved, it could be a fine game, but right now, you don't want to play this one on the Steam Deck.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II (1/5)

Nominated For Best: Narrative, Audio, Performance (Melina Juergens), Games for Impact
Won: Best Audio Design, Best Performance (Melina Juergens)
Steam Deck Compatibility: 1/5

Sadly, in our first impressions article for Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, we found that the performance on Steam Deck is largely unplayable. Even with low settings and taking advantage of upscaling technology, performance is often sub-30 FPS and occasionally sub-20, so we'd recommend you stick to playing it on a PC or streaming the game from GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud.

Star Wars: Outlaws (1/5)

Nominated For Best: Performance (Humberly González), Accessibility, Action/Adventure Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 1/5

While Star Wars: Outlaws can run on the Steam Deck using Proton GE, it isn't the best experience. Even on the lowest settings, I was getting sub-30 FPS in the cantina and walking around, with action sequences dropping even lower.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Audio Design, Accessibility, Action Game, Multiplayer
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Like all recent Call of Duty games, anti-cheat is in place which does not support Linux devices. You would have to stream Black Ops 6 to your Steam Deck using a service like Xbox Game Pass or GeForce Now.

Destiny 2 (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Ongoing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Destiny 2 does not work on the Steam Deck due to the anti-cheat solution used. The game is available for streaming over GeForce Now.

EA Sports FC 25 (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Sports/Racing Game
Won: Best Sports/Racing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

This game is incompatible due to the anti-cheat solution used. The game is also not available on any cloud streaming services as of yet.

F1 24 (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Sports/Racing Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

As above, F1 24 uses the same anti-cheat solution and thus isn't playable on the Steam Deck. The game isn't available on Xbox Cloud or GeForce Now either.

Fortnite (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Ongoing Game, Community Support
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5, Fortnite does not work with the Steam Deck due to an incompatible anti-cheat solution.

Princess Peach: Showtime! (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Family Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Princess Peach: Showtime! is a Nintendo Switch exclusive title.

Stellar Blade (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Score/Music, Action Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Stellar Blade is a PlayStation 5 exclusive title for now. The best you can do is stream the game from your PS5 using remote play software like Chiaki4Deck.

Super Mario Party Jamboree (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Family Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Super Mario Party Jamboree is a Nintendo Switch exclusive title.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Family Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

This title is exclusive to the Nintendo Switch.

Unicorn Overlord (0/5)

Nominated For Best: Sim/Strategy Game
Steam Deck Compatibility: 0/5

Unicorn Overlord is exclusive to consoles and is not available on any cloud streaming services as of yet, so you can't play it on the Steam Deck.

And that's it for how all the games nominated at The Game Awards 2024 run on the Steam Deck. What do you think of this year's nominees and winners? Let us know in the comments below!

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 are sure to 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 your back.