Steam Deck sales drop by an estimated 80 percent after huge price hikes

Gaming is already bordering on unaffordable thanks to the cost of living crisis, tariffs, and stagnating wages, while publishers dabble with $80 games, mid-gen price hikes, and expensive subscription services. Now, the global memory shortage threatens to pile on the costs even further with $1,000 next-gen consoles.

Valve has been hit especially hard by the ‘RAMpocalyse.’ The Steam Machine launched at an eye-watering $1,049 despite being weaker than the base PS5, while the Steam Deck price rose by roughly $300.

Expectedly, a $789–$949 handheld isn’t selling nearly as well. In a new analysis by Boiling Steam, it estimated that demand has dropped by nearly 80 percent after plummeting from the top five bestsellers on Steam to the bottom-end of the top 15.

That might not sound bad, but as it explained in its napkin math breakdown, games and hardware ranked between #4–5 make a weekly revenue average of $6–$10 million, whereas those placed between #10 and #15 make around $1.2 to $2.5 million.

$800 Handhelds Might Only Be The Beginning

Considering those figures, slipping from the top five to #11–14 means that the Steam Deck’s revenue has shrunk by approximately 72–82 percent. And since Steam’s top sellers list is based on overall revenue, not units sold, that placement is worse than it seems, as the Steam Deck’s average sales price is now roughly $300 higher than it was before.

To put that into perspective, Boiling Steam explained that a 72–82 percent decline is equivalent to a drop from selling 11–18k units per week in 2025 to just 1.4k to 3k per week in July 2026. Valve has hit the threshold on what consumers are willing to pay for gaming hardware, and evidently, $789–$949 is too steep for most buyers.

In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Valve engineer Yazan Aldehayyat explained that “it’s still getting worse,” and that the Steam Machine will likely rise in price even further. Considering the impact the global shortage has already had on tech, thanks to the insatiable demands of AI data centers, we can only expect the Steam Deck, or possible Steam Deck 2, to follow suit with yet more price hikes.