2D Platformers Dominate Steam Deck Play, Analysis Shows

Steam Deck owners gravitate toward 2D platformers more than any other game type, according to analysis by GameDiscoverCo founder Simon Carless.

Carless examined Steam user reviews from players who spent at least 50% of their gaming time on the Steam Deck. He filtered for titles with at least 100 such reviews and minimum revenue of $1 million, excluding free-to-play games. He then studied the tags attached to these games across the platform.

The top five most popular tags among Steam Deck owners by median review share are: 2D platformer at 2.31%, card roguelike at 2.03%, Metroidvania at 1.98%, boomer shooter at 1.7%, and party RPG at 1.64%.

By contrast, MMORPGs and grand strategy games showed the least appeal, with median shares of 0.1% and 0.12% respectively.

Among paid titles, five games showed the highest concentration of Steam Deck reviews. UFO 50 led at 19.2%, followed by Minishoot' Adventures at 14.72%, Dungeons of Hinterberg at 13.96%, Mina The Hollower at 13.71%, and Rogue Prince Of Persia at 13.49%.

Carless noted that Steam tags differ from formal genres because both developers and players can assign them, sometimes creating inconsistencies in classification.