TECH NEWS – A new estimate indicates that the number of Steam Deck units sold may have fallen by 82% following the substantial price increase and the discontinuation of the LCD model. Although these are not official sales figures, the analysis draws on SteamDB information, Steam’s revenue-based rankings, and several sets of historical industry data.
The Steam Deck price increase has reportedly taken a serious toll on Valve. The device has not had an easy 2026: the component shortage caused stock problems for the handheld PC-console hybrid, the LCD model was discontinued, and the OLED versions received a price increase of more than €200. Now, a complex calculation has surfaced suggesting that the device’s higher cost has significantly affected its commercial performance. This would not be a minor decline in sales either, but a catastrophic collapse for the company behind Steam.
That is the conclusion reached by Boiling Steam after analyzing several different parameters, including data from SteamDB and the ranking of the highest-revenue products across Steam’s entire catalog. The results are discouraging: following the Steam Deck price increase and the aforementioned disappearance of the LCD model, the number of units shipped reportedly fell by 82%. According to the publication’s estimates, Valve went from recording 11,000-18,000 weekly sales to only 1,400-3,000. Although this is an unofficial assessment, Boiling Steam’s conclusions are supported by calculations based on real company data.
A Significant Drop in Steam’s Highest-Revenue Product Rankings
Boiling Steam did not merely publish the catastrophic results of its analysis, as it also provided the complete methodology used to reach those conclusions. One of the factors examined was Steam’s ranking of its highest-revenue products. The Steam Deck remained consistently within the Top 5 throughout 2025, but by July 2026, it had fallen dramatically to 14th place. That may not appear to be a particularly significant change at first, but when Steam’s revenue-weighted rankings are translated into actual sales, the Steam Deck’s weekly shipment volume falls by 82%.
How can a revenue ranking be translated into actual sales? The process primarily involves cross-referencing historical data from SteamDB, retrospective analyses from developers who have shared information about the performance of their games, and correlation models based on concurrent users recorded during the second quarter of 2026. This allowed Boiling Steam to estimate the average weekly revenue ranges for the Top 20 products on Steam. According to the analysis, products in fourth and fifth place may generate between $6 million and $10 million, while those ranked between 10th and 15th may earn between $1.2 million and $2.5 million per week. By converting all of this information into sales figures, the publication calculated the approximate number of Steam Deck units that may have been sold during recent weeks.
The analysis ultimately produces the figures mentioned earlier: an 82% decline in sales and a reduction to only 1,400-3,000 units shipped each week. There is a simple explanation for why the device remains among Steam’s highest-ranked products: the list ranks products according to the revenue they generate, not the number of units sold. Since the 512 GB version of the Steam Deck now costs €779 and the 1 TB model is priced at €919, the device can remain near the top of the ranking despite selling far fewer units.
A Worrying Outlook
Since the decline in sales coincides with the Steam Deck price increase, it is easy to conclude that players are willing to purchase the device when it is priced at around €650, but are considerably less interested when its cost approaches €1,000. The disappearance of the LCD model must also be taken into account, as it previously represented the most affordable option available to consumers and can no longer be purchased at all.
Boiling Steam has outlined three possible scenarios that could emerge from the Steam Deck’s current situation. Valve could return to the device’s original pricing, competitors could follow the trend and announce price increases for their own console-like PCs, or the Steam Deck 2 could arrive on the market. However, the analysis suggests that none of these possibilities is particularly favorable or likely, as Valve is unlikely to reverse its decision and is currently more focused on distributing the Steam Machine than on developing a hypothetical Steam Deck 2.
The current component shortage must also be addressed. Valve, alongside other major companies in the industry such as Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox, has justified its price increases by pointing to the growing difficulty of obtaining essential components, particularly RAM modules. A Valve engineer has already warned that the situation will not stabilize during the coming months and that, at best, some relief may be felt in 2028. It is therefore entirely possible that the hardware market will continue to suffer for a long time.
Source: 3DJuegos
