It’s silly to compare Switch 2 sales to Steam Deck sales.
The Switch 2 is a locked-down, vertically integrated platform. There are no ROG Switch 2s. No Lenovo Switch 2s. No Switch laptops or tower PCs with discrete GPUs. If you want to play Mario Kart World, your only option is to buy a Switch 2. Period.
Steam Deck, by contrast, isn’t a platform. It’s just one hardware option—one entry point into the sprawling, open ecosystem known as PC gaming.
Every year, around 245 million PCs are shipped globally. If even 20–25% of those are gaming-focused, that’s 49–61 million gaming PCs annually. Steam Deck is a sliver of that. So of course it won’t outsell a console that’s the only gateway to a major IP.
But that’s exactly the point.
PC gaming is too decentralized for any single device to dominate. The last “PC” that did was the Commodore 64, which sold 12.5–17 million units over 12 years because it was a self-contained platform, unlike modern Windows, Mac, or Linux machines.
That the Steam Deck has sold 4 million units despite competing with every other gaming PC in existence is remarkable. It didn’t just sell—it legitimized a category. Handheld PC gaming is now a thing. That’s why Lenovo, ASUS, and MSI have followed. Even Microsoft is getting in, optimizing Windows for handhelds—something they would never have done if the Steam Deck didn’t hold their feet to the fire.
So no, Steam Deck didn’t outsell the Switch 2. It didn’t need to.
It won by changing the landscape.
Also, for what its worth, the OLED Decks literally sold out today, as in, Valve doesn’t currently have any more to sell in the US.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2025/06/supply-chain-issues-are-making-the-steam-deck-oled-go-out-of-stock/
Also also… I realize this is a silly comparison, but the Switch 2 has not outsold all variants of the Deck, yet.
Its at about 3.5 million, Steam Deck is at about 4.5 million since 2022.
Also x3, the Switch 2 is apparently already sold out as well, as in no more units available at US retailers.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/11/nintendo-switch-console-record-sales.html
Wild the Switch 2 has nearly caught up to the Deck in less than a week.
Not surprising. The Deck has always been niche and is just one way to play PC games out of many, many other options.
Oh, wow, I knew the most expensive one sold out a week or so ago, but didn’t know the middle tier one did, too. It can’t possibly be a coincidence that this happened when the Switch 2 launched when they’ve all been in stock for a long time now. I know I got my LCD Steam Deck right after seeing the Switch 2 reveal. The continued enshittification of the walled gardens in the gaming industry has finally made me start the transition to PC gaming as a main rather than secondary way to play games.