New figures from rummy star research outfit IDC show that Valve's Steam Deck is likely still the most popular handheld gaming PC by far. However, the market for handhelds fell by 50% in 2024 versus 2023 and overall volumes are still very small compared to desktop and laptop gaming PCs, and consoles to boot.
IDC was commissioned by the Verge to break out the best data the research outfit had on handheld gaming PCs. That data covers the biggest players in the handheld market, namely the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw.
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As for the future, IDC is rummy win forecasting 1,926,000 handheld sales for 2025. Again, that's just for the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and MSI Claw and not including smaller players.
That's better than 2024 but still well, well down on the 2.9 million units of 2023. So, it's hard to argue that the handheld gaming PC market is exploding. Where it goes from here is hard to predict.
However, if there's one lesson here, The Verge probably has it right. These handhelds probably work best with truly custom silicon like the Aerith and Sephiroth AMD-based chips in the original Steam Deck and the Steam Deck OLED as opposed to using the generic APUs with which all the other systems make do.