Valve has its own rating system that measures how games perform on Steam Deck, but even when following the guidelines for what constitutes “playable” or “verified,” I still come across games that simply don’t work on the handheld.
Enter Steam Reviews. Reviews from players who primarily played on Steam Deck will now have a petite Deck icon that, when hovered over, will show you the exact amount of time spent on the Deck.
Steam users can also filter their search for these reviews by clicking the “Play time” dropdown at the top of the review section and selecting “Primarily played on Steam Deck.”
It’s a relatively minor change, but oh boy is it useful. I play a lot of games on Steam, given my career, such as it is, and it makes a massive difference knowing up front whether something will run comfortably on the Deck or whether I’ll still have to hunch over the desktop for 60+ hours a week.
Valve has recently made some changes to Steam user reviews. Earlier this month, they moved to deprioritizing user reviews that were very miniature or contained ASCII art, because while these reviews can be entertaining (or “funny”), they are not helpful to people making purchasing decisions.
You can always skip the user reviews and read ours, remember. We sometimes review games on Steam Deck and always mention when we do (most recently The Crimson Diamond), and James constantly tests games on the device for Steam Deck Academy. Check out his picks for the best games on Steam Deck.
