Sales of Valve’s Steam Deck crater after recent price hike

Valve Steam Deck 销量在近期涨价后大幅下滑

Since its 2022 launch, the Steam Deck has consistently been at or near the top of the company’s “top selling products by revenue” charts, with brief dips outside of the top 10 treated as newsworthy events. But sales of the popular handheld gaming PC have apparently been on a steep decline since the system relaunched at a higher price in May.

自 2022 年发布以来，Steam Deck 一直稳居 Valve 公司“按收入计算的最畅销产品”榜单前列，偶尔跌出前十名都会被视为新闻。然而，自从这款热门掌机在 5 月以更高价格重新上架以来，其销量似乎出现了急剧下滑。

Linux-focused gaming site Boiling Steam breaks down the historical data, showing how the Deck’s chart position has fallen from fifth place immediately after orders resumed in late May down to 14th place for two weeks in early July (the hardware sits at 12th place in the current edition of those charts). That’s in sharp contrast to 2025, when the Steam Deck never dropped below seventh place on the bestseller charts and was only rarely outside the Top 5. Then Valve warned of “intermittent shortages” for the Steam Deck starting in February, leading to weeks of lower chart positions before the Deck became completely unavailable until May.

专注于 Linux 游戏的网站 Boiling Steam 对历史数据进行了分析，显示 Steam Deck 的排名从 5 月下旬恢复订购后的第五名，一路跌至 7 月初连续两周的第 14 名（在最新一期的榜单中，该硬件位列第 12 名）。这与 2025 年的情况形成了鲜明对比，当时 Steam Deck 在畅销榜上从未跌出过前七名，且极少跌出前五。随后，Valve 在 2 月份警告称 Steam Deck 将出现“间歇性短缺”，导致其在 5 月份完全断货前，榜单排名连续数周下滑。

Boiling Steam does some back-of-the-envelope math to try to translate these revenue-based chart positions into estimated unit sales ranges for the Steam Deck, based on assumptions about average sale price across hardware models (both before and after the price hike) and estimated weekly revenues for the surrounding games on the charts. That rough model suggests Steam Deck sales may have fallen by approximately 80 percent from a 2025 baseline of about 11,000 to 18,000 units per week to a current estimate of just 1,400 to 3,000 per week. While there’s a lot of wiggle room in those estimates, anything close to those numbers would reflect a huge slowdown in sales for a handheld that sold an estimated 4 million units in its first three years.

Boiling Steam 通过简单的估算，试图将这些基于收入的排名转化为 Steam Deck 的预估销量范围。他们基于不同硬件型号的平均售价（涨价前后）以及榜单中周边游戏的预估周收入进行了推算。该粗略模型显示，Steam Deck 的销量可能已从 2025 年每周约 11,000 至 18,000 台的基准水平，大幅下滑了约 80%，目前估计每周仅售出 1,400 至 3,000 台。尽管这些估算存在一定的误差空间，但如果数据接近这一水平，对于一款在头三年售出约 400 万台的掌机来说，无疑反映了销量的巨大放缓。

Supply and demand

供需关系

Boiling Steam attributes this marked sales dip to a price increase that has “completely shut down demand for the Steam Deck.” And it’s likely that the Steam Deck’s historical $400 to $649 price range was much more attractive to consumers than the current $789 to $949 range brought on by RAM and storage shortages. At current prices, consumers might start considering more powerful handheld gaming PCs in the same price range from competing hardware lines like ROG’s Ally, Lenovo’s Legion Go, or MSI’s Claw.

Boiling Steam 将此次销量显著下滑归因于价格上涨，称其“彻底抑制了 Steam Deck 的需求”。Steam Deck 此前 400 美元至 649 美元的价格区间，显然比受内存和存储短缺影响后目前的 789 美元至 949 美元区间对消费者更具吸引力。在当前价格下，消费者可能会开始考虑同价位下性能更强的竞争对手产品，例如 ROG Ally、联想 Legion Go 或微星 Claw。

But the relative dip in Steam Deck sales could also reflect the shortages in Steam Deck supply that Valve still warns are impacting availability in some regions “intermittently.” While some stock trackers have shown consistent availability for the Steam Deck since late May, the hardware was briefly unavailable in North America shortly after relaunching at its new prices, suggesting Valve can’t always satisfy the current market demand. Regardless of the reason, it seems clear that Valve is currently selling many fewer Steam Deck units than it did even six months ago.

不过，Steam Deck 销量的相对下滑也可能反映了供应短缺问题，Valve 至今仍警告称这在某些地区造成了“间歇性”缺货。虽然一些库存追踪器显示自 5 月下旬以来 Steam Deck 供应一直稳定，但该硬件在以新价格重新上架后不久，曾在北美出现过短暂缺货，这表明 Valve 并不总能满足当前的市场需求。无论原因如何，显而易见的是，Valve 目前的 Steam Deck 销量远低于半年前的水平。

In normal times, this might be a good sign that Valve should get moving on finalizing and releasing the long-awaited Steam Deck 2. But given how component pricing is looking for the immediate future, we shudder to think what Valve would have to charge to make a profit on a more powerful handheld today.

在正常情况下，这或许是一个信号，表明 Valve 应该加快步伐，完成并发布备受期待的 Steam Deck 2。但考虑到近期组件价格的走势，我们不禁担心，如果要在今天推出一款性能更强的掌机并实现盈利，Valve 的定价将会高到什么程度。