Three years ago, the Steamdeck was launched by Valve and it quickly became a trend followed by Acer, Lenovo, MSI and ASUS. But according to a report by The Verge using data collected by IDC, so far it is estimated that around 5.97 million portable consoles have been sold. What may be worrying for manufacturers is that sales from year to year have been quite flat with no sudden increase in demand by the market.
Of the nearly 6 million units sold so far, 3.7 units sold are Steamdeck with the rest shared by ROG Ally, Legion Go, and MSI Claw. For 2025, IDC predicts around 1.93 million more consoles will be sold. This three-year sales figure is small when compared to the Nintendo Switch which sold 13.12 million units in its first year and has now sold over 151 million units after seven years of launch.
Personally, we like all the portable consoles we've tested so far, like the ROG Ally. But the small screen and lackluster battery life mean we can't enjoy a gaming session as much as we would on a PC or console at home.