The best Steam Deck games

It's 2026, and we still love playing games our Steam Decks. Valve's handheld gaming PC might be a bit too slow to handle the latest big budget games, but with a library of more than 20,000 Steam games marked as Deck Verified and loads of new indies releasing every week with modest specs, it remains a great way to play anything that doesn't have ray tracing in the options menu.

Other than competitive first-person shooters and strategy games that we simply have to play on a mouse and keyboard, there are few PC games that don't translate well to the Steam Deck's buttons, analog sticks and trackpads. You could spend the whole next year playing just great stuff that came out in 2025. So how do you pick what to play, here in 2026? We've got some suggestions.

Everything included on our best Steam Deck games list is a game someone on the PC Gamer team loves playing on the handheld. That means they're often shorter, more bite-sized games, but some are hundred-hour RPGs that we'd rather play cozy on the couch than at our desks. We lean towards more recent recommendations to capture what we've most actively been playing the last few months.

The best Steam Deck games need to run well on the handheld and be fun to play with gamepad controls, or with the Deck's extremely customizable paddles and trackpads. Otherwise we'd direct you to the best laptop games, which similarly run on lower-end hardware.

To make this list, a Steam Deck game has to:

• Work well on a small screen
• Run well enough to not detract from the experience
• Feel worth the install space on your SSD or SD card
• Control well without a keyboard/mouse

If we recommend an action game for the Steam Deck, that means it can reliably run somewhere between 40 and 60 fps, though we're less picky with puzzle games or turn-based RPGs that can sip power at 30 fps without bumming us out. Our selection of the best Steam Deck games is sorted by genre and personally tested on the Steam Deck by the PC Gamer crew.

Here's what we're playing on the Steam Deck right now.

The must-install Steam Deck games

Before we get into our more recent recommendations, here are the obvious, all-timer picks that belong on every Steam Deck. Chances are good you have 'em installed already, so we won't linger on them.

• Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
• Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight Silksong
• Balatro
• Vampire Survivors
• Stardew Valley
• Dead Cells
• Slay the Spire
• Dave the Diver
• Terraria
• FTL and Into the Breach
• Ball X Pit
• Yakuza 0

The best puzzle and adventure Steam Deck games

The Séance of Blake Manor - 1.3GB

Release: 2025 | Developer: Spooky Doorway

A mystery game that pulled me in with the moody art from the first minute, as my 19th century detective arrived at a spooky manor to investigate a woman's disappearance. If you've played this year's critically acclaimed Blue Prince, you'll feel some immediately similarities here (and both games are from publisher Raw Fury), but they play quite differently. You've got a traditionally structured narrative to talk your way through here, with the twist that each action you take spends a bit of time, and characters will move and the story will progress without waiting for you to figure everything out.

If you delight in seeing a web of clues and evidence fill itself out automatically as you make your way through a mystery, this is for you.

Baby Steps - 12 GB

Release: 2025 | Developer: Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy | Our review: 87%

Is "adventure" the right category for Baby Steps? This sim/platformer/action/adventure comedy is hard to pin down, but it's possibly the most maddening and funniest game of 2025. A potent combination, as Jody writes in his 87% review:

"Baby Steps takes the idea of games as challenges, of hard modes and iron man runs and proud declarations that yellow paint is ruining videogames, and personifies it as a specific kind of man—the man who will not ask for directions no matter how lost he is... Baby Steps makes ambling into slapstick comedy, and I laughed a lot while Nate groaned and swore and blubbered. At least, for the first seven or so hours. The seven hours after that started to edge into being draining and joyless in their own way—honestly, sand can fuck right off forever, Anakin was right, just a hateful substance—but by that point the story had hooked me."

Old Skies - 3.75GB

Release: 2025 | Developer: Wadjet Eye Games | Our review: 87%

Wadjet Eye has been reliably releasing classic point-and-click adventures for more than a decade now, and Old Skies may well be its best. Fun, not-too-tricky puzzles are a common throughline, but Old Skies is doing a couple things differently, with a step up to more illustrative comic book style character art and a time travel conceit that reveals its ambitions as you go.

"Old Skies slowly grows into a cohesive story of love, loss and regret that started to punch me in the gut with alarming regularity," writes reviewer Fraser Brown. "As [protagonist] Fia develops more agency, more personal connections, a desire to have a real life rather than just being stuck in the eye of the storm, surrounded by an ever-changing reality, Old Skies truly becomes something special."

The Rise of the Golden Idol - 2.5GB

Release: 2024 | Developer: Color Gray Games | Our review: 87%

The sequel to one of our GOTY winners from 2022, Rise of the Golden Idol is another great mystery adventure. You'll show up to crime scenes that have something to do with the elusive idol and have to piece apart what happened, with lots of little bits in the environment to click on to discover more details. You'll collect words based on what you see in the scene and use those words to eventually solve the crime—in his review, Chris Livingston calls this process "murderous Mad Libs."

"Collecting words is done by clicking on things but true understanding only comes from close examination of everything in the scene: poring over notes on cork boards and letters in pockets, gathering clues in desk drawers and wastebaskets, scrutinizing the tiniest details like the torn cuff of a sleeve or a splotch of paint. Even fingerprints need to be examined at one point, every detective's dream come true."

Wilmot Works It Out - 450MB

Release: 2024 | Developer: Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg

"This chill puzzle game is so good I bought its prequel before I even finished it," writes PC Gamer's Chris Livingston. That's an endorsement! This follow-up to Wilmot's Warehouse is a cute puzzler that Chris particularly called out as a great Steam Deck companion. You're Wilmot, who's literally a square, and you use your square head to assemble the pieces of various jigsaw puzzles with satisfying clicks. Rather than working on a single puzzle at a time, you'll often have pieces that go to multiple puzzles and have to suss out what goes where as you assemble. Simple premise, great execution.

Animal Well - 34MB

Release: 2024 | Developer: Billy Basso | Our review: 90%

We called Animal Well a "sleep-destroying puzzle metroidvania of baffling depth" in our review, praising its eerie atmosphere and clever design that slowly unfolds as you explore. Not only is your arsenal of items particularly unique—you'll find yourself utilizing a slinky and a yo-yo instead of the usual gamey upgrades—there's little combat in Animal Well, making it a notably different sort of adventure than Hollow Knight. But there's so much to find once you've "finished" the game.

As we said in our review: "It's rare for a game that hints towards fathomless depths to so continually reward curious prodding—especially when that game is under 50 megabytes!—but Animal Well, like Fez, Spelunky and Hollow Knight before it, feels like it could be a concern for years to come."

Pentiment - 10GB

Released: 2022 | Developer: Obsidian | Our review: 88%

A gorgeous historical murder mystery set in and around a monastery in early 1500s Bavaria. Pentiment has roots in classic PC adventure games but is built to be completely playable on a controller and Deck verified, so you know it's going to work well here. Your time in Pentiment will be spent interviewing the locals to try to suss out a murder—when you're not losing yourself staring at the stunning fonts, anyway.

The best deckbuilding and strategy Steam Deck games

Monster Train 2 - 1GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Shiny Shoe | Our review: 91%

A sequel in the "more is more" vein, but it's hard to complain too much about that when it means more of the finest deckbuilder this side of Slay the Spire. You're still arranging squads of monsters on three floors of a Hell train to fight off invading angels, but this game does even more to play up the interplay between your cards and the many status effects they can be buffed by or stricken with.

"The best synergies feel like you’ve broken the game," writes reviewer Abbie Stone. "Occasionally you have, but Monster Train remains the master of tricking you into feeling like you’re playing a duller deckbuilder with all the cheats on.

UFO 50 - 400MB

Released: 2024 | Developer: Mossmouth | Our review: 80%

UFO 50 defies genre categorization. It could've really gone anywhere on this page, because this is not a single game but a collection of 50 of them, all designed to replicate the 8-bit era of console gaming. It's got puzzlers, RPGs, first-person adventures, platformers, shmups, and strategy games, with a light but compelling meta narrative linking them together, built around the fictional game company that made them all. You're almost guaranteed to find at least a few games in the collection that grip you. Consider the rest an incredible bonus.

The best Steam Deck action games and platformers

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor - 2GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Funday Games | Our review: 90%

A smash success, this riff on Vampire Survivors adds some of Deep Rock Galactic's mining to the auto-shooter action. You'll complete missions while digging through the dark and melting bugs by the ton. While this game has been on our list for awhile, it's now launched out of early access and may have become our favorite Survivors style game of them all. Sorry, Vamps!

Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound - 700MB

Released: 2025 | Developer: The Game Kitchen | Our review: 78%

2025 was the year of the ninja, with both Sega's Shinobi and Koei Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden getting their first new games in years. This 2D action platformer is from the makers of Blasphemous and runs as well as you'd expect on the Steam Deck (unfortunately it can't keep a stable 60 fps on the poor old Switch 1).

"Essentially it’s a series of kill chains and platforming challenges, with the occasional pause to figure out a mild puzzle (usually nothing more complex than how to slaughter everything more efficiently)," writes reviewer Abbie Stone. The lack of a single killer idea prevents this from being an all-timer, but I welcome straightforward action games with this sense of pacing.

Nine Sols - 3.7GB

Released: 2024 | Developer: RedCandleGames | Our review: 88%

I shamefully overlooked Nine Sols when it came out in 2024, but it really was one of the year's best games. It stands out from a sea of Hollow Knight imitators with a sharp parry mechanic, great art, and a strong sci-fi setting from Devotion developer RedCandle.

"Nine Sols’ masterstroke is that simply pulling off a parry isn’t just a reward in itself here. It also fills up your Qi, which Yi uses to slap deadly talismans on his enemies," writes reviewer Abbie Stone. "In time-honored Soulslike tradition, these bosses start off seemingly impossible. But stick with it, and you’ll gradually master the parry timing and rhythm of parry-talisman-boom-repeat. When you finally ricochet and detonate your way through a boss without taking a single blow, it feels like taking down Ornstein and Smough blindfolded. With a guitar hero controller. That’s not even plugged in."

Skin Deep - 2GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Blendo Games | Our review: 88%

It's rare we recommend a first-person shooter for the Steam Deck, because we generally prefer them on a mouse and keyboard. But we'll make an exception from Skin Deep, an immersive sim from the always creative Blendo Games. Skin Deep makes a perfect Steam Deck game because it's a shooter that's more about slapstick comedy and problem solving than shooting.

"By the time I rolled credits, there was no question that Skin Deep is among the best and deepest stealth sandboxes I've ever played in," writes reviewer Morgan Park. "...I've sent guards into sneezing fits with boxes of pepper, turned soap into an explosive, flushed myself down a trash chute to make a quick escape, and subjected an entire pirate crew to ear-splitting jazz.

"You'd think MIAO Corp's top agent would be issued a gun, knife, or at least a leather-wrapped cudgel to drive off intruders, but thanks to the 'complications of the deep freeze process,' equipment protocol is procure-on-site, Solid Snake-style. Such is the zany, charmingly Die Hard setups behind Skin Deep's intricate sandboxes: Nina is outnumbered, outgunned, and literally shoeless, but she still holds all the cards."

Hades 2 - 4GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Supergiant | Our review: 88%

We are so back.

Back in the underworld, I mean, trying to escape it—this time as princess Melinoë, younger sister of Zagreus. Though Hades 2 is currently in early access, it launched with as much or more stuff in it than Hades had at 1.0, making this an easy recommendation to play right now. It's also different from the first game in some notable ways, including Melinoë's movement style and abilities and some of the weapons at her disposal. Supergiant didn't just make this a purely additive sequel, then, but wanted it to feel distinct from the original to keep things fresh.

Through early access it became one of 2025's best action games, even if the ending didn't quite land for everyone.

Pizza Tower - 300MB

Released: 2023 | Developer: Tour De Pizza | Our review: 90%

Pizza Tower is platforming heaven, taking inspiration from Wario Land and 2D Sonic while also boasting a '90s Nickelodeon animation style and a soundtrack that has no right to sound this good. Seriously, bring headphones if you're playing it in public - you'll want to hear every track.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - 25GB

Released: 2014 | Developer: Platinum Games | Our review: 80%

With the release of 2025's Ninja Gaiden 4, I'm more convinced than ever that this is actually Platinum's finest action game ever. Don't tell Bayonetta!

Given a katana that can cut literally anything in half and a parry system that uses the same button as attacking, and Revengeance is just nonstop sword swinging, frantic in the best way. It's Deck verified and with some settings tweaks can run at a stable almost-60 fps. For smoother performance, try capping the Deck's refresh rate at 59 fps (which is the framerate Revengeance runs at, for some reason).

The best Steam Deck RPGs

Deltarune - 600MB ⭐

Released: 2025 (ongoing) | Developer: Toby Fox

The long-in-the-works successor to Undertale finally made a big splash in 2025, going on sale on Steam with its third and fourth chapters added to the two that had previously been released for free. The launch was popular enough to briefly crash Steam, proving that Undertale's following is still ravenous for more.

Deltarune plays with (and even defies) RPG conventions, which is what makes it so fun, says writer Ana Diaz: "You never know when a fight might turn into a different game, or a water cooler will become a giant monster of death. Fox has more chapters of Deltarune planned, but the first four are already a phenomenal expression of his signature idiosyncratic style and a must-play for RPG-heads."

Skald: Against the Black Priory - 700MB

Released: 2024 | Developer: High North Studios AS | Our review: 89%

"Before playing Skald: Against the Black Priory, I liked the idea of this throwback roleplaying game, but wasn't sure it was for me," writes reviewer Ted Litchfield. "Skald's primary source of visual inspiration is an era of DOS and Commodore RPGs I have respect, but not much affection for. Skald's gorgeous VGA-inspired pixel art scared me off as much as it enticed me.

"Finally diving into the game, though, I found something decidedly more modern: Skald is crisp and tight, threading the needle with an elegant, modern design sensibility that doesn't sand off the complexity and depth I crave in my RPGs."

What more do you need to know? An early '90s style RPG with smart modern touches and it's Steam Deck verified. Get cozy and get to questin'.

Caves of Qud - 1.2GB

Released: 2024 | Developer: Freehold Games | Our review: 94%

After a lifetime in early access, Caves of Qud is fully out, and it sets a new high bar for roguelike RPGs with deeply simulated worlds and evocative sci-fi writing. Granted, there's not much—maybe nothing—else out there quite like Qud, but it's a high bar nonetheless! "I cannot recommend Caves of Qud enough for its innovations in mechanics and storytelling, however anachronistic it may look," writer Jon Bolding said in his 94% review. "Caves of Qud is a genre-defining achievement in play, story, and roleplaying freedom."

As part of Qud's big 1.0 launch, it got a revamped interface that's much more controller-friendly than you might expect from a roguelike of its type, with particular attention paid to its playability on Steam Deck. If you want a game you can play for 100 hours without ever stressing the Deck's GPU, it's this one.

Disco Elysium - 20GB

Released: 2019 | Developer: ZA/UM | Our review: 92%

Almost entirely voice-acted, this game requires you only to read your responses and some menu stuff, though the text may be a little small for some. Still, the game runs perfectly well without Proton's intervention, and works great with a controller. In fact there's an excuse to play around with the touch screen here as well if you fancy. It's not the smallest install, but it is, you know, the best PC game, period.

The best party/co-op Steam Deck games

Peak - 7.3GB ⭐

Released: 2025 | Developer: Team Peak | Our review: 86%

The 2025 climbing game sensation helped coin a whole new term, "friendslop," for cheap, casual games to play with your Discord crew. Peak is a fantastic example of that, but the "slop" bit is undeserved: it's a clever, funny, well-judged co-op climbing game that requires skillful play while also throwing in plenty of goofy mayhem. The simple graphics are a great fit for the Steam Deck, and so is the proximity voice chat, which will have you shouting into the handheld's microphone.

Peak narrowly missed one of our GOTY 2025 awards, but Mollie still argued that it was one of the best of the year in her personal pick.

"Hidden in the chaos of Peak's mountain-climbing endeavours is a series of team-driven decisions: Even from the very beginning, awakening near the crash site with a smattering of items among the debris," she writes. "Figuring out everyone's strengths and using them to move as one throughout Peak's treacherous map is a kind of satisfaction I just haven't found elsewhere."

Valheim - 1GB

Released: 2021 | Developer: Iron Gate AB | Our review: Unscored

Not only is this a tiny install, considering it's open world, it's also pretty great with a controller, particularly as there are so many options for assigning your hotbar items. We suggest following these steps to make Valheim look spectacular. As long as you're somewhere with a stable internet connection, I wholly recommend joining your friends for some Viking shenanigans.

The best life sims, management sims, and cozy sims

Promise Mascot Agency - 6GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Kaizen Game Works | Our review: 94%

Promise Mascot Agency could also fit in alongside our favorite Steam Deck adventure games; it's a truly strange combination of visual novel and management sim in which you're in charge of a failing mascot agency. The mascots are not people in costumes, but living blocks of crying tofu, porn-obsessed cats, and increasingly strange creatures. When you send them out on jobs, you then have to play a card game to help them be the best mascot they can be.

Oh, also, you drive a cute little truck around a dilapidated Japanese town in between talking to people and handling the economics of your rags-to-riches business.

Also also, it's one of the best games of 2025. No surprise from the developers of Paradise Killer. If that description just left you mystified, give it a shot anyway.

Fields of Mistria

Released: 2024 (early access) | Developer: NPC Studio

The strongest contender for Stardew Valley's crown in ages, Fields of Mistria brings a charming '90s anime flair to the farm life sim, with an emphasis on dating the cutey pie townsfolk you'll be spending a lot of your time with (though the relationships aren't yet fully formed). This isn't just for the Sailor Moon lovers: even in early access there's a lot of promise in Mistria's atmosphere and farm sim stuff, as demonstrated by its first major update. Even if Stardew or the also-excellent Roots of Pacha own your heart right now, keep an eye on Mistria for the future. It's Deck Verified, too.

Cult of the Lamb - 1GB

Released: 2022 | Developer: Massive Monster | Our review: 82%

Is Cult of the Lamb a sim? An action game? A dungeon crawling roguelike? Uh... yes, to all of the above. Part base builder, part actioner, this cutesy occult game is like "Animal Crossing if Tom Nook craved power instead of money," according to our reviewer. Dungeons provide the action in between building up a society for your newfound worshippers. Outside of some small text, it's a great Deck game, and has a new expansion landing in early 2026.

Sports/Driving games

Sonic Racing: Crossworlds - 16.6GB ⭐

Released: 2025 | Developer: Sonic Team | Our review: 79%

It's not often we get a new kart racer on PC. While the latest Sonic racer hasn't quite lived up to the reputation of 2010's beloved Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, its world-hopping gimmick is good fun. And more importantly, it can run at 60 fps on the Steam Deck with just a few settings tweaks.

"Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is so messy and frustrating that I sometimes question why I like it so much," writes reviewer Mollie Taylor. "But Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds hoists itself up with some of the cleanest, most robust kart racing I've seen on PC, tracks that leave a ton of room for experimentation and optimisation, vehicle customisation I could only dream of in other mascot-centric kart racers, and an abundance of unserious trash talk that feels so on-brand for the Sonic cast."

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 - 50 GB

Released: 2025 | Developer: Iron Galaxy Studios

While not as universally well received as 1+2 (we have our own criticisms) it still feels great to go back to the glory days of Tony Hawk, particularly with this remake's take on THPS3. THPS4 is missing its old career mode, which is a shame, but the games still play great.

And they'll run at 60 fps on the Steam Deck, making them perfect to noodle around with for a bit anytime the slightest urge to skate creeps up on you.

Super Mega Baseball 4 - 16 GB

Released: 2020 | Developer: Funskeletor Labs

A minimalist yet beautiful racer, Art of Rally is a serene, heavily stylized driving game inspired by classic cars. You race from a top-down perspective instead of the usual rear fender view; Art of Rally is to cars what the also-great Lonely Mountain Downhill is to biking. Perfect your lap times while taking in the scenery: the extremely modest system requirements will keep this one running at full performance without stressing your Deck.