What do gamers think of the Steam Deck, Valve’s new portable PC gaming device?

Valve, the company behind Steam and games such as Half Life and Counter-Strike, has recently announced a new handheld gaming device coming this December 2021. The Steam Deck will be the first handheld gaming device that allows gamers to play PC games on the go, directly from the cloud. According to a new poll from YouGov, gamers seem to be excited about the prospect of a handheld console capable of running PC games.

We measured consumer awareness, interest and excitement for Valve’s Steam Deck among people who play PC or console games in the US and Great Britain. Just days after the portable PC gaming machine was officially announced, 44% of PC/console gamers say they have heard something about the Steam Deck. In Great Britain, roughly two in five English PC/console gamers have heard at least a little about Valve’s latest gaming machine (37%).

Many gamers welcome the idea of a device bringing mobility and portability to the PC gaming market. When asked about their interest in buying a handheld gaming device capable of running PC games on a 7-inch screen, 70% of gamers in the US and 65% of gamers in Britain are interested.

We took a closer look at gamers in the US who expressed interest in buying a handheld PC gaming machine using YouGov Direct’s profiling variables. This gaming audience stands out for several key demographic, attitudinal and behavioral differences, including:

• They’re heavy streamers and less likely to be watching TV. Roughly seven in ten (68%) of gamers interested in a handheld PC gaming device say they watch TV using third party streaming services (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, Disney+) while just 55% say they watch traditional television.
• They spend their time watching streamers. Six in ten of this gaming audience say they watch gaming streamers and use platforms such as YouTube Gaming (34%), Twitch (29%) and Discord (23%).
• They over index in their usage of certain social media platforms. While a majority of this gaming audience say they’re on Facebook (86%), Instagram (63%) and Twitter (58%), they are more likely to be members of Reddit (33%), Snapchat (31%), and TikTok (23%) than US consumers overall.

Valve’s new handheld console won’t reach the hands of consumers until the end of the year but there’s already plenty of excitement for the Steam Deck. Among those who have heard something about Valve’s Steam Deck in the last week, 61% of English gamers are excited about its release this December. In the US, that number rises to 71% among gamers who have heard something about the new Valve console.

Read more about what gamers said about the new Nintendo Switch OLED

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Methodology: YouGov polled 1,200 US adults online on July 19th, 2021, between 8:56am and 1:57pm EST. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, political affiliation, and ethnicity. Results are nationally representative of adults in the United States. The margin of error is 3.8% for the overall sample.

In a separate but similar YouGov Direct survey, we polled 1,200 British adults online on July 19th, 2021, between 1:50pm and 5:19pm BST. The survey was carried out through YouGov Direct. Data is weighted by age, gender, education level, region, and social grade. Results are nationally representative of adults in Great Britain. The margin of error is 4.7% for the overall sample. Learn more about YouGov Direct.

Image courtesy of Valve