The 19 Best Steam Deck Games You Should Get Today

No offense to the immensely fun Switch, but for many gamers the Steam Deck was exactly the mobile gaming device they had been waiting for. Valve wisely designed the device to support as many Steam games as possible, along with a variety of other compatibility options. Plus, it’s available at a variety of price points based on hardware and has upgradeable storage. As long as you’re comfortable with the plethora of onboard control options (and a Linux-based OS), it’s mobile gaming’s endgame. Well, at least until the Asus ROG Ally hits shelves.

The problem is that the Steam Deck works with so many games, you may not know where to start. We’re making that choice easier with some of the best and most popular games on the Steam Deck. Our choices are targeted toward the commute-friendly mobile gaming that the Deck excels at. Take a look!

Hades

The game Hades not only revolutionized the rogue-lite genre, but set a standard for gaming when it comes to animation, story, and incredibly pleasing controller-focused combat. If you’ve never played this gem, it’s more affordable than ever and perfectly fitted for the Steam Deck.

In Hades, you controlled Zagreus, who is the son of Hades and more or less confined to his room for eternity. Your job is to break out through the various levels of hell, but you can’t die without getting sent back to your starting place. Along the way, you can collect a number of different weapons and improve your stats to help face down the hardest bosses. You also meet a wide variety of gods, friends, and lovers who can help you on your journey, empowering abilities as you progress.

It’s an addictive formula, and the finely-tuned action makes dodging and attacking easy on the Steam Deck. Each run only takes around 20 to 30 minutes or so, depending on how far you get. That’s a great length to help handle a commute, period between classes, lunch break, etc.

Hogwarts Legacy

Yes, Hogwarts Legacy is a new game as of early 2023, and it’s surprisingly large. You may need to check the appropriate amount of download space on your Steam Deck when first choosing it. However, as long as you’ve got room, the game is an incredible fit for mobile gaming. The action involves plenty of setups and counters, but it’s fluid and intuitive enough to easily handle on a handheld.

The explorations aspects, whether you are searching the forests around Hogwarts or flying on a broomstick to nearby towns, are fun no matter how much time you have. Any dungeons you stumble into along your way, you complete within one session. And, if you’re just bored, you can wander around Hogwarts, level up spells, hunt down rare beasts, and more. It’s a surprisingly cozy adventure (when not murdering outlaws), and Steam Deck is one of the only mobile devices that can handle it.

Vampire Survivors

The swift rise of Vampire Survivors is explained by several excellent features forming a whole. First, the actual loop only takes about 30 minutes, so sessions stay short. Second, the pixelated levels may look simple, but building up your weapon abilities into a constant barrage of whirling disasters never gets old. Third, while there are only a handful of levels (with more added in time), there’s always something to do. That includes unlocking more characters from the massive roster, meeting new challenges, and finding unexpected weapon combos.

Add in the low price, and Vampire Survivors is well worth trying even if you’ve never played anything like it before. The transition between running from slowly moving hordes and plowing through somewhat faster hordes like a bulldozer is immensely satisfying on the Steam Deck.

No Man’s Sky

The essence of No Man’s Sky is exploration. You have a boundless number of planets to chart, fly around, mine, and simply enjoy. It’s an excellent game to take up time when you don’t want to feel any pressure (although dangerous situations can still occur).

Updates to No Man’s Sky have added so much it’s difficult to summarize. You have expedition missions, companions to collect, enemies to survive or fight, and ways to upgrade how you explore. You can take any path you want, as long as you can survive local wildlife, pirates, and worse. Plus, there’s always a new planet just around the corner, rich with possibility.

Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush is best known as the sleeper hit on Game Pass that took gamers by storm in 2023. But it also plays flawlessly on the Steam Deck, which is great because this game is fun. In an ode to the cartoons and games of the past, you play as a wannabe Rockstar with a magic MP3 Player embedded in his chest. Your goal is to fight through legions of robots, cyborgs, and bosses to escape the conspiracy you’ve been trapped in. And your method is fighting to the beat — literally. Mix fast and slow attacks to the beat of the music that’s always playing, and your timed hits will do extra damage or enable additional moves.

You don’t need to be a master of rhythm to enjoy this game. You can enable onscreen indicators to help out, and a little practice will make it easy to hit combos. And with environments filled with collectibles and powerups, you’ll never get bored.

Cult of the Lamb

The cartoony style of Cult of the Lamb may remind some gamers of Castle Crashers and other titles that came long before. However, this game takes its presentation to another level as you explore ancient lands, conquer or enlist communities, and gather power. You are indeed a lamb, bound in service to a dark deity to grow its followers. As your cult increases in power, so do you – but that can also awaken challengers. Don’t let this game pass you by without taking a closer look: It’s well-worth your time and plays excellently on mobile platforms.

Stray

The cute game stray started life as a PlayStation game but has graduated to other platforms. And while it’s a graphical showcase, the Steam Deck can easily handle this charming little world. You play as a cute cat, separated from its family and ready to explore a sci-fi city populated by robots and other creatures. It’s not a long nor complex game, and most of the fun is found in cat-climbing through or under the city. It’s a charming break from the grind, whether in your personal or your gaming life. That makes it well worth exploring the Steam Deck.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Today’s Witcher 3 is in a sweet spot where it’s old enough to run quite easily on the Steam Deck, but still an enormous RPG. There are stories to follow, wilds to explore, and dangerous beasts to slay as you level up your preferred way to fight. The Witcher 3 pays out more the more you play it, continually revealing more beautiful lands, more dangerous monsters, and more story-focused intrigue. The biggest danger is that there’s so much to do, new players may find it a little overwhelming. We don’t recommend this game for a purely casual player, but if you’re an RPG fan and haven’t tried it, now’s a great time to jump in.

Outer Wilds

Outer Wilds is another rogue-lite that won a slew of rewards for its captivating gameplay. We can’t say too much about it without spoiling some of the high points of discovery. However, you start out as a space pilot that’s exploring a dangerous area of space caught in a strange time loop. Your job is to survive, discover what you can, and do as much as possible before time resets again…and again…and again. It’s a thrilling ride that, aside from the inherent countdown, you can take at your own pace, enjoying every bit of it. The more you play, the better you become at survival and the further you can reach to uncover new mysteries.

Brotato

Sudden hit Brotato may be a newer game, but it’s already become one of the most-tried titles on the Steam Deck, and it’s not hard to see why. Fans of Vampire Survivors will find something familiar in combatting alien hordes while upgrading abilities. But Brotato adds an element of humor, additional clarity that works well on mobile devices, and more ways to play. Anyone can pick it up and quickly find weapons and strategies that best fit their mood, usually with hilarious results. Multiple game modes keep the fun alive, too!

Octopath Traveler II

You’ll notice Octopath Traveler’s style is immediately familiar, a return to old-school JRPG mechanics and world building with loving attention to detail. A diverse party with varying backgrounds and secrets come together to seek answers in a far-away land in turmoil. It’s all very familiar to fans of older Final Fantasy games or Secret of Mana titles, but with some extra graphical oomph. Fortunately, you don’t need to play the first game to enjoy this sequel adventure.

Valheim

Valheim is a massive Viking survival game where you and up to 10 other people try to make a living on an enormous map. If you like the slow, steady grind of realistic survival, mixed with the ability to do things like build your own Nordic hall pieces by piece, Valheim is the game for you. You can spend hours growing, hunting, and crafting as intricately as you want. Of course, not everything is a farming sim: You also have to deal with wayward weather, build ships to explore rough seas, and run into the occasional huge monster. When you’re ready, those monsters have the best crafting materials, but only for the most prepared warriors.

Stardew Valley

Speaking of farming sims, Stardew Valley remains the peak of relaxing gaming, perfect for mobile platforms. Endless gentle activities await, like farming ingredients, looking for rare materials, building better planters, and turning your farm into a home. You can also advance all kinds of relationships, raise animals for fun or farming, and turn your crafting into a full time job. There’s also something new to explore or you can chill with the beautiful music when you’re tired.

God of War

The God of War(2018) game won acclaim for being one of the best iterations of the series possible, adding heart and giving action the perfect boost. If you’re having trouble keeping track, this is the one where you first journey amongst the Norse gods and your son is just a boy following you across the wilderness. That wilderness is teeming with monsters and myths to slay in brutal combat as you pick and master your favorite weapons.

God of War hits a sweet spot where the visuals remain incredible on the Steam Deck, but it’s still playable. If you haven’t picked up this hit yet, take it on the go.

Aperture Desk Job

Aperture Science is Valve’s favorite crazy punching bag, featured in the Portal series and other titles. If you’re a fan, you’ll absolutely love the snark and puzzles of this game, too. Basically, you have to solve a number of clerical issues ranging from lab explosions to science experiment testing. Every one is a little zanier than the last, and they challenge your mind in many creative ways. It’s a perfect choice if you’ve already run out of Portal games, and of course works perfectly on the Deck.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered

This remastered version of Marvel’s Spider-Man is gorgeous on the Steam Deck. The screen may be smaller, but zipping around New York still looks amazing. Also, the intuitive controls make web slinging a breeze on handheld. If you are looking for another Spider-Man adventure you can take on the go, this is your top choice.

Death’s Door

You may not have heard of Death’s Door, but super-high reviews and word-of-mouth have made it a famous title. Available on the Steam Deck at last, you can enjoy the adventure and puzzles no matter where you are. You play as a Crow tasked with journeying a strange world of undeath. You’ll scavenge goods, level up stats, and fight bosses, wielding weapons and magic as you go. It’s an excellent, unique experience.  

Marvel’s Midnight Suns

If you can’t get enough Marvel and would love a mobile game that’s not a cheap cash grab, Midnight Suns is here to save your day. This tactical RPG puts you in a position to direct teams of popular heroes to face down threats. While it’s technically a card game, you don’t need any card experience to quickly pick up the controls. Fights take place in dynamic, moving environments where strategy and combos help as much as flashy super moves. And if you’ve enjoyed XCOM games before, this is the same creator — so you can count on the experience.

Control

It’s hard to explain Control if you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing it already, but it’s an incredibly rewarding game on the Steam Deck. You play as a woman seeking answers who arrives at an occult version of the FBI. Here, an endless government building houses the darkest, weirdest secrets of the world — but it’s been taken over by evil forces. Your job is to explore, unravel the mystery, and beat back the supernatural.

Control’s combat, mixing a transforming handgun with paranormal powers, is a little simple on the big screen but perfect for a mobile game. Just take time to read all the notes you find, it’s well worth it.

A Couple of Tips for Playing on Steam Deck

Check out a few tips for trying a new game on the Steam Deck:

• The Deck has a lot of control options, from sticks to touchpads. Some games will really only support one control format, while others may support multiple. We suggest spending your first few minutes in a game customizing your controls through the Steam Deck settings.
• If you find yourself playing more and more (and more) Steam Deck with this collection of games, you may want to add a microSD card for extended storage.
• You can enable Developer Mode in the Steam Deck settings. This allows you to do things like head to the Performance section and control the refresh rate, among other things. You’ll have more options to ensure smoother gameplay or graphics.
• We’ve picked games that are quite compatible with the Steam Deck. But, things happen. If your game is starting to freeze or lag badly, hold down the power button for at least 10 seconds to force quit. Boot back up and try again.

Best of luck with your next mobile gaming journey!

The image featured at the top of this post is ©Valve/Steam Deck.