Don't want to see articles from a certain category? When logged in, go to your User Settings and adjust your feed in the Content Preferences section where you can block tags!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Recently I went over the top 100 most-played games on Steam by player count but what about the most highly rated games on Steam? Here's how the top 50 most positively reviewed Steam games work on Steam Deck.

Making use of the wonderful Steam 250 website, taking a snapshot of the titles listed on July 12, here's what you can expect to see on Steam Deck and 99% will work fine on Linux desktops too of course, since the Steam Deck is powered by Linux. For the rating, I'm sticking to Valve's official Deck Verified position for now. As a reminder though, there are quite a few that are Playable or Unsupported that really do work fine. For desktop Linux users, the ProtonDB rating was added too (if it's not Native) which goes Platinum - Gold - Silver - Bronze - Unsupported.

The Numbers

  • 29 Verified
  • 14 Playable
  • 3 Unsupported
  • 4 Unchecked

The Top 50 List

Name Steam Deck Rating ProtonDB Rating
Portal 2 steam deck verified Verified Native
Terraria steam deck verified Verified Native
Stardew Valley steam deck verified Verified Native
Hades steam deck verified Verified Platinum
People Playground steam deck verified Unchecked Gold
Left 4 Dead 2 steam deck verified Verified Native
Vampire Survivors steam deck verified Verified Gold
Euro Truck Simulator 2 steam deck verified Verified Native
RimWorld steam deck verified Verified Native
Portal steam deck verified Verified Native
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth steam deck verified Verified Native
Garry's Mod steam deck verified Unsupported Native
Phasmophobia steam deck verified Verified Gold
Half-Life: Alyx steam deck verified Unsupported Silver
Native (but not advertised)
Factorio steam deck verified Playable Native
Bloons TD 6 steam deck verified Playable Gold
Counter-Strike steam deck verified Playable Native
Mount & Blade: Warband steam deck verified Unchecked Native
Helltaker steam deck verified Unchecked Native
Slay the Spire steam deck verified Verified Native
Hollow Knight steam deck verified Verified Native
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator steam deck verified Verified Gold
Half-Life 2 steam deck verified Verified Native
Slime Rancher steam deck verified Playable Native
ULTRAKILL steam deck verified Verified Platinum
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt steam deck verified Verified Platinum
Katana Zero steam deck verified Verified Platinum
The Henry Stickmin Collection steam deck verified Verified Platinum
OMORI steam deck verified Playable Gold
Dyson Sphere Program steam deck verified Playable Gold
Resident Evil 2 steam deck verified Verified Gold
A Hat in Time steam deck verified Verified Gold
Satisfactory steam deck verified Playable Gold
Celeste steam deck verified Verified Native
Undertale steam deck verified Playable Native
Don't Starve Together steam deck verified Verified Native
Doki Doki Literature Club! steam deck verified Playable Platinum
Dead Cells steam deck verified Verified Native
Dishonored steam deck verified Verified Platinum
Hotline Miami steam deck verified Verified Native
Risk of Rain 2 steam deck verified Verified Platinum
Deep Rock Galactic steam deck verified Playable Platinum
BeamNG.drive steam deck verified Playable Gold
Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition steam deck verified Playable Gold
Subnautica steam deck verified Playable Gold
OneShot steam deck verified Unsupported Native
South Park: The Stick of Truth steam deck verified Verified Platinum
Fallout: New Vegas steam deck verified Unchecked (but works) Gold
Tomb Raider steam deck verified Playable Platinum
Native is old and hidden
BattleBlock Theater steam deck verified Verified Native

Another interesting thing I noticed only recently, the Steam Top 250 website also has a dedicated Steam Deck Verified section for the top 250 titles there too. That's pretty great.

Be sure to check out and follow the GamingOnLinux YouTube for plenty of guides and videos.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
33 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
18 comments
Page: 1/2»
  Go to:

fenglengshun Jul 12, 2022
Hi, while this is quite interesting, perhaps for the next lists we could also add a column for their ProtonDB rating? As someone who can't purchase the Deck, it would still be nice to keep track a comparison of the Deck Verification ratings and the ProtonDB ratings.
Liam Dawe Jul 12, 2022
Quoting: fenglengshunHi, while this is quite interesting, perhaps for the next lists we could also add a column for their ProtonDB rating? As someone who can't purchase the Deck, it would still be nice to keep track a comparison of the Deck Verification ratings and the ProtonDB ratings.
On it. Edit: done.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 12 July 2022 at 11:07 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Jul 12, 2022
It's interesting that of the Unchecked, two are Gold on ProtonDB and two are native. So presumably it wouldn't take much for all four of those to become Playable.
That leaves only the three Unsupported as definitely not workable on the Deck--but note that even that doesn't mean they don't work on Linux period, since all three of those Unsupported are actually Linux native. Presumably their Unsupported category is about specifically Deck-related issues, not Linux-related issues. I'd say that's particularly clear for Alyx, eh?

Bottom line: While only 43/50 of those titles are currently "Playable" or better on the Steam Deck, already a pretty dashed good figure, all 50 can be played on Linux. That's amazing.

Incidentally, 25 of them, exactly half, are Native, not even counting Tomb Raider. We get more native titles than some people think we do.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 12 July 2022 at 4:05 pm UTC
KROM Jul 12, 2022
View PC info
  • Supporter
Thank you for another helpful and informative overview!

I'm a little bit astonished that there are that many native titles among these Top 50 - nice!

On a side note: I own way too many of these. :D
tfk Jul 12, 2022
Why is OneShot native but unsupported?
slaapliedje Jul 12, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library GuyIt's interesting that of the Unchecked, two are Gold on ProtonDB and two are native. So presumably it wouldn't take much for all four of those to become Playable.
That leaves only the three Unsupported as definitely not workable on the Deck--but note that even that doesn't mean they don't work on Linux period, since all three of those Unsupported are actually Linux native. Presumably their Unsupported category is about specifically Deck-related issues, not Linux-related issues. I'd say that's particularly clear for Alyx, eh?

Bottom line: While only 43/50 of those titles are currently "Playable" or better on the Steam Deck, already a pretty dashed good figure, all 50 can be played on Linux. That's amazing.

Incidentally, 25 of them, exactly half, are Native, not even counting Tomb Raider. We get more native titles than some people think we do.
For sure there is a nice number of native games out there. What saddens me is the occasional one that works fine / better native, but defaults to Proton on the Steam Deck.

I do find it amusing that Half-Life: Alyx is on that list. It does, by the way, work flawlessly natively. Played through the entire game with no hiccups on a 2080RTX + Index. while I'm not sure the game is worth all the money you have to sink into a system, if you already have it... it is VERY cool. I should play more VR...
Kimyrielle Jul 12, 2022
Quoting: tfkWhy is OneShot native but unsupported?

Don't know about that particular game, but there are reasons other than Linux support why a game doesn't work on the Deck. Not all games can be played well on a screen that small, and not all offer controller support, just to name two of the more common ones. I am actually quite a bit surprised that so many of these 50 games work well on a device they weren't designed for. That's pretty amazing.
CatKiller Jul 12, 2022
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Quoting: slaapliedjeI do find it amusing that Half-Life: Alyx is on that list. It does, by the way, work flawlessly natively. Played through the entire game with no hiccups on a 2080RTX + Index.
Your rig has the capacity to do VR. The Steam Deck does not. Hence all VR titles are "Unsupported" across the board by the Deck Verified process.
slaapliedje Jul 12, 2022
Quoting: CatKiller
Quoting: slaapliedjeI do find it amusing that Half-Life: Alyx is on that list. It does, by the way, work flawlessly natively. Played through the entire game with no hiccups on a 2080RTX + Index.
Your rig has the capacity to do VR. The Steam Deck does not. Hence all VR titles are "Unsupported" across the board by the Deck Verified process.

Correct, my point was that these are on the top 50! Makes one curious about the install base of VR at this point.
ElectricPrism Jul 12, 2022
This talk of VR makes me curious. It would make a great Linux video to learn if someone using a dGPU over USB could theoretically run VR.

Obviously the software stack is fine for it.

It's silly and a ridiculous use-case that would never be practical in its current iteration but I do wonder.


In summary, as the list points out, there's certainly no shortage of things to play, I already have hundreds of games ready to play and they've all performed above my expectations. The resolution is perfect, I probably wouldn't notice much if it got boosted. The ergonomics of the SteamDeck are great, I hold it in one hand sideways just fine without fear of it slipping out of my hand. Controls and buttons are adequately large for adult hands. It literally has a Desktop (which will be great if this world-electric-shortage issue continues [which it will]).

All in all SD is a dream, not flawless, but still a dream. The only problem I had was last night the Internet had connectivity issues -- and I couldn't start the Steam Deck without internet as it got stuck in a "Checking for updates" screen.

I think Steam Deck & all content should be ready to play offline in the event there is no internet (which typically I think is the case, except I think it had just finished applying the update).

I also forsee potential times when internet outages may be happening, and hope the community can get together one of those "Offline Steam DLL" patches or whatever that allow existing content to be played offline.

We payed good money for our libraries, and if there is intermittent internet that's no good reason to not be able to play our purchases.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.