Steam Store Pages Now Show How Games Run on Steam Deck
Valve has started showing average Steam Deck performance figures on game pages in the Steam store, so buyers can see how smoothly a game tends to run before they purchase it.
The figures are framerates. A framerate is the number of frames, or still images, a game draws each second, and a higher number generally means smoother motion. According to Eurogamer, the averages come from Steam Deck owners who chose to share their framerate data with Valve.
To find them, open a game's page and look in the Steam Deck Compatibility section, then click Learn More. The panel includes a histogram, which is a bar chart showing the share of data samples recorded at each framerate. A tall bar at one number means many samples landed there. A short bar means few did.
The feature has limits. It covers only games that have been tested for Steam Deck compatibility and carry one of Valve's three labels: Verified, Playable or Unsupported. Valve's labels indicate how well a game is expected to work on the handheld. Eurogamer reports that the feature covers thousands of titles.
Valve says it intends to bring framerate data to more devices in future, beyond the Steam Deck. The company has not, in the reporting cited here, named which devices or given a timetable.
For a player weighing a purchase on a handheld, the change puts real-world performance numbers on the same page as the price. Before this, that kind of information was usually found in reviews, forum threads or personal testing. Now it appears in the store itself, built from the play of people who opted in.
