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Use Steam’s compatibility rating for Valve’s device-focused assessment, then check ProtonDB and other community reports for player-submitted experience. The sources answer different questions: a Steam badge summarizes Valve’s review against defined criteria, while community reports describe individual experiences that may depend on a game build, Proton version, settings, or other conditions.
What Steam’s compatibility rating tells you
Valve assigns one of four categories to games it has reviewed: Verified, Playable, Unsupported, and Unknown. Ratings and their compatibility details appear in the Steam store and library. The badge is a structured, first-party assessment of how a game works on Steam Deck—not a guarantee that every player’s experience or preferred settings will be identical. Valve’s Steam Deck compatibility page explains the categories and review criteria.
| Rating | What it means |
|---|---|
| Verified | Works well out of the box according to Valve’s Deck criteria. |
| Playable | May require manual adjustments. |
| Unsupported | Currently does not function on Steam Deck. |
| Unknown | Valve has not checked the game for compatibility yet. |
Valve’s Verified review considers input, display, seamlessness, and system support. In practice, that includes physical-controller usability, appropriate input prompts and text entry, readable text at Deck-supported resolutions, a navigable launcher, and Proton or anti-cheat support where applicable. Steamworks documentation specifies a default configuration playable at 30 fps at 800p for Deck; that is part of the review criteria, not a promise of that performance in every scene or setup. See Steamworks’ compatibility review documentation.
Valve says tens of thousands of Steam titles have been released and that new games and updates arrive every day. The review process is ongoing, and ratings can be updated as information changes. That makes Unknown a coverage status, not a failed test: Valve’s wording is, “We haven’t checked this game for compatibility yet.” Valve’s category explanation is the source for that wording.
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#1 Best Overall
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- 1280 x 800 HDR OLED display with premium anti-glare etched glass, 7.4" Diagonal display size up to 90Hz refresh rate
- Wi-Fi 6E
- 50Whr battery; 3-12 hours of gameplay (content-dependent)
- Carrying case with removable liner
What ProtonDB and community reports add
ProtonDB describes itself as a crowdsourced Linux and Steam Deck game-compatibility reporting resource. Valve’s Proton community-report wiki points readers to ProtonDB and describes reports organized by game app ID. The wiki was edited on November 2, 2018, so it establishes the relationship and report format, not the state of reports today.
Community reports can supply details that a broad category does not: what a player encountered, and potentially under which conditions. They are observations rather than a controlled test or a second official Deck rating. The sources cited here do not establish a universal minimum sample size, a required reporting template across sites, or a guarantee that a report matches your game version, Proton version, and settings. An old report should not automatically be treated as a description of the current build.
Rank #2
- International (UK) Version
- 7.4” diagonal, HDR OLED, 1280 x 800 x RGB, up to 90Hz Refresh rate, High performance touch, <0.1 ms Response time, 1,000 nits peak brightness (HDR), 600 nits (SDR)
- SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)
- 512GB NVMe SSD, 16GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels), microSD UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC
- 6 nm AMD APU, CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32
How to check a game before playing or buying
- Open the Steam store page or your library. Find the Deck compatibility category and open its details to see the reason behind the rating. Valve publishes ratings in these locations and defines the criteria it reviews.
- Interpret Unknown correctly. It means Valve has not completed a compatibility check, not that the game failed one. Look for other evidence rather than treating the badge as a verdict.
- Check ProtonDB for player reports. Review the report details and age. Consider whether the stated game, Proton, and software context is close enough to your own; the sources do not specify a universal recency cutoff.
- Use other community reports as contextual evidence. Prefer reports that identify the issue and relevant circumstances. A single player’s result is not a universal compatibility verdict.
- Resolve disagreements by comparing like with like. Separate launch problems from controls, display, or system-support issues, then weigh the most current and specific evidence you can find. Valve documents device criteria and ongoing retesting; community posts describe their own circumstances.
How to weigh conflicting results
| Question | Steam rating | ProtonDB or other community report |
|---|---|---|
| Who produced it? | Valve’s compatibility review. | Players submit reports; ProtonDB identifies its resource as crowdsourced. |
| What does it assess? | Valve’s defined Deck usability and system criteria. | Reported player experience, potentially with setup details. |
| What does missing information mean? | Unknown means Valve has not checked the game. | No report means there is no report at that source; it does not establish success or failure. |
| How should you consider age? | Valve updates ratings as information changes; game updates can prompt retesting. | Check when the report was made and whether its versions or conditions match yours. |
| How specific is the evidence? | Valve provides criterion details behind its review. | Specificity depends on what the reporter included; no single required standard is established for all reporting sites. |
When evidence conflicts, do not reduce it to a contest over which source is “right.” A rating may summarize device criteria while a report surfaces a particular issue under particular conditions. For a decision that hinges on one detail—such as whether a launcher can be navigated or whether a control issue persists—give the greatest weight to current evidence that addresses that same detail.
Quick Recap
Rank #4
- Valve is entering the gaming console marketplace with the new Steam Deck, a console geared towards PC gamers. The Steam Deck can be docked to a monitor, and used as a PC, or docked to a TV.
- Players can play a huge variety of games at any time with the comfort of a console and the freedom of a PC. Not anti-glare screen.
- Like the name suggests, the Steam Deck will include upgraded 1TB storage, and will include a carrying case. A micro SD slot will also enable expanded storage.
- Valve partnered with AMD to create a specialized APU optimized for handheld gaming, and Valve says the chip will deliver performance to run AAA gaming titles.
- The Steam Deck is outfitted with a 7-inch touchscreen, and two trackpads under the control sticks that allow gamers to operate games never designed outside of mouse and keyboard capabilities.
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