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.
Anyone can release a cartridge though? This part you’re ignoring.
Why move the goalposts? You’re also now suggesting we gatekeep devs? Why is releasing something on pc fine, but wouldn’t be fine if it was “homebrew”? Because it doesn’t fit your bias?
A game release is a game release, or do these limitations only apply to one side unevenly?
Pc is FULL of shovelware, so that shouldn’t be the metric we use? Yeah?
Why do you keep insisting I’m moving the goal post? I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just pointing out the process is not easy as you claim it is.
I never said it was easy?
You said it was a walled garden, so it sounded like you weren’t aware that homebrew and modern cartridge releases exist. And are now arguing why those aren’t applicable to your “walled garden” comment.
Prove to me that there isn’t a walled garden.