However, that was just the beginning. As game compatibility expanded and developers optimized for the Steam Deck, the more capable it became. On top of that, Sony started to bring PlayStation games to PC, with the likes of God of War 2018 and The Last of Us playable on the Deck; suddenly, this wasn’t just a Steam machine but also a pseudo PSP.

No, a Steam Deck 2 isn't imminent, but Valve will nonetheless make waves at CES 2025 in January.The Latest Tech News, Delivered to Your Inbox

If you've just picked up a Steam Deck (or been gifted one) here's the 5 games that you should play first on your new handheld gaming device.

For the first few days with the Steam Deck OLED in hand, all I did was load up different games to try and find the hard limit for the Deck's capabilities. As it turns out, as long as a game is Steam Deck Verified,

The Steam Deck is one of the best portable gaming devices around, despite one major shortcoming: It doesn’t run Windows. Unlike the Asus ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go, and a fleet of other devices that come with Windows preinstalled, the Steam Deck uses Linux.

Valve shared its “Best of 2024” data on Dec. 26, highlighting games that performed the best by a variety of metrics. The data is split into various categories, such as best-selling games, most played, and favorites among Steam Deck, VR, and controller users.