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GOTY Category 7: Steam Deck Game of the Year (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-26 21:43:06
Imported:
2026-06
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OK, this category is perhaps slightly more niche than all the others, but for you Steam Deck owners out there... what's the best Steam Deck game? This one is deliberately open to some interpretation, encompassing things like "high-end game that ran surprisingly well on a Deck" as well as "perfect portable PC game" and just about everything in-between. Deck owners: what's the best thing you played on a Steam Deck this year?

Comments

Horns

Donkey Kong Country

Shane

Spider-Man Remastered

Jordan Hass

Trackmania, if done correctly.

Chris

Cult of the Lamb

Todd Johnson

Vampire Survivors hands down. So easy to pick up and play and it's not a battery hog, so you can keep saying "just one more run" 17 or 18 times after you should be asleep.

Spencer Ward

Mannn Yakuza Kiwami 2, been playing it constantly, dragon engine looks so good on deck too. Tactics Ogre Reborn also feels like it was made for steam deck.

Ben Mininberg

I realize this is Vampire Survivors' category but I spent the most time with Harebrained Schemes Battletech from 2018 and finally finished the campaign. This was my first experience with the touchpad mouse analog on the Steam controller and it worked perfectly. The Deck is fantastic for a 20 minute strategy game mission on the couch.

Adam W Hamilton

You're going to be like, Adam you dummy that's a horrible game, but Death Stranding Directors Cut. I put 104 hours into the game, could not tell you one thing that happened story wise outside of the jokes everyone makes. But I loved the travel aspect of the game, and would play while watching sports.

Aaron Seddon

As dumb as this sounds, the only game I’ve played to completion is GTA V. Having that game that still looks and runs great on such a small handheld was crazy to me. So much so I ended up finishing it. I’ve started Max Payne 3 multiple times on it too as my save game sync keeps breaking on it but it works really well too. In terms of retro games I finally played The Terminator on Mega CD to completion on the steam deck which was something I always wanted to do, having it on me on the Deck has been great. Unfortunately I’m really bad with sticking with one game and playing to completion on any system and with all the tinkering that’s doable on that thing I’ve spent most of my steam deck time installing stuff and testing everything … which is standard.

Ian Zamojc

1. Portal 2 (first thing I installed as a performance baseline) 2. Doom Eternal (basically 60 fps on very high quality settings) 4. Vampire Survivors 2. Dome Keeper (very chill and the music sounds good even on deck speakers) 3. Slay the Spire (really excellent controller and touch screen input)

Bobby Downey

Persona 5. Getting PSP vibes.

Cheyenne

Vampire Survivors. Hard to pick one, I've come back to a lot of indie games in my steam library because of the steam deck, but even with the absurd lag during the last few minutes of a run, Vampire Survivors has been the one I've most come back to when relaxing before bedtime.

DK

Cult of the Lamb was my favorite, followed closely by Vampire Survivors

Mario Pineda

Remnant from the Ashes. Really impressed with how well the Deck handles that game.

mattyhochs

Hitman 3. So easy to pick up and throw some wrenches around.

Wes Koop

Trackmania 2020 (which was announced to come to steam in feb!). such a great bedtime game

caylen

I'd make a strong argument for Emulation Station/EmuDeck, as the way it streamlines making the Deck into an incredibly competent & effective emulator for the masses is one of it's best features. If we are talking actual games, I think Vampire Survivors, Rogue Legacy 2 and Tiny Rogues (still in early access) are the titles that feel *best* on Steam Deck. In particular, Rogue Legacy 2 feels so natural & fun that it could be a damn pack-in with the console.

Jeremy Barrett

Best thing I played on Deck this year was Yakuza 0. Played it for the first time, front to back, on Deck and couldn’t put it down. I only wish I had my dock when I played it because it was nice to be able to play portable and docked during my playthrough of Kiwami and current playthrough of Kiwami 2.

A1steaksa

Halo Infinite The ability to play a round before bed with about 0 seconds prep is outstanding

Kyle

Lost Judgment. I played a ton of it on the deck and it both looks and runs great and the battery lasts for over 3 hours. caylen's post re: EmuDeck is pretty spot on also.

William Rompf

Vampire Survivor, with a strong runner up being Sniper Elite IV - shooting Nazis in the nutsack is just too, too good.

Rhyme Wilder

I've almost exclusively been using mine for metroidvanias. So. Probably axiom verge 2 rn

Glognus

For me it was Fallout 4. It a game I never was able to play until I got a steam deck and couldn't put it down. Definitely not a new game, but that's the beauty of the steam deck I think.

Ryan Heise

Oh man I had no idea this was working on the Deck now!

Kyle Rudy

Trackmania working so well on it was a real surprise and I really enjoyed using it for that.

Erik Bolton

I played 4-5 hours of Pentiment on my Deck. Fantastic way to spend XMAS day. :)

Ryan Heise

Hear me out: I have replayed the Titanfall 2 campaign about once a year since 2016. This year I did my replay on the Deck and it ruled.

Jesse Stringer

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade was the first game that made me feel like we were flying too close to the sun with the Steam Deck and my favorite experience on it so far.

Merc-a-dude

Vampire Suvivors should've been the pack in

Adam Feeney

My steam deck is a Vampire Survivors box.

C J

FF7 Remake and Persona 5 for me. I find the steam deck is an awesome portable RPG machine. Being able to put a JRPG like Persona 5 into standby mode if something comes up irl means I’m way more likely to play them when I only have smaller chunks of gaming time.

Jercyan

Steamdeck was a Vampire Survivors and Neon White machine for me post Elden Ring

James

Vampire Survivor. It's the steam deck's Tetris.

Andrew Fish Booth

Covid caught up to me back in August, and was perfect time for me to spend my quarantine time to play thru Spiderman again once it hit Steam at just around that time. Also, all of Xbox Gamepass on streaming. Works flawlessly on my wifi

Gary3k

800 bucks for a vampire survivors machine

Craig Parker

I can't answer this yet but I am getting a steamdeck today or tomorrow, so I am greatly interested in everyone's answers

Christoffer & Malin

I finally got around to play Astroneer, which after some controller-fiddling works surprisingly well. That and of course Vampire Survivors.

Sean Ian

Just hear me out on this one, Final Fantasy XIV. It runs perfectly fine, has great controller support and it runs for around 2 hours which is great for anyone who is getting older and can't spend hours at their computer.

Jordan

It has easily been slay the spire for me

Sean

Come in you know it’s vampire survivors

Brett Greiwe

I use it mostly for older games. I just played quest hunter which is an older title but a game.i would never sit at a computer and play

Alex De La Cruz

You already know it’s gonna be Vampire Survivors but just to go against the grain: Inscryption. Just an absolute indie wonder. No game has played so well on the go and has given me genuine goosebumps as much as this game has.

u!sel

Elden Ring. I'm highly impressed of how well this game runs on there. Although I have a well-fitted Laptop on my Desk and I occasionally even plug it into my TV for those couch sessions, I find myself way more often playing that game on the Steam Deck, on my couch, TV turned off...

Duncan Parker Newton-Gaines

There were a ton of things I played on deck this year, but the best experience for me had to be Disco Elysium. It was because of the pick up and play nature of the deck that I was able to really put aside time to get into the story and BOY HOWDY did I get into it.

u!sel

Also, every top notch Dreamcast and GameCube game. I took the extra mile last year and put an ODE into my original DC but here I am, playing Soul Calibur and Bangai-O on the subway!

Ben Mininberg

This is high on my gaming to-do list.

Nicholas Kent

MGSV feels like it was made specifically for the Steam Deck, kinda surreal how well it works. Vampire Survivors a close second.

Teigen Pillsbury

Monster Hunter Sunbreak. Runs at 60FPS, (compared to the Switch which can't maintain 30FPS), and the quest gameplay loop just feels right on a handheld.

Martin Price

GTA:5 is the best on the deck if you just want to play for a few minutes messing around because suspend/resume makes it possible to bypass the insane load times.

POWERYELL

Playing cloudpunk on the steam deck just felt magical. A game I bought but never tried shined the best on the deck.

Josh Harper

The Elder Scrolls Online. Technically not verified, but it's easy to get it running, it's a great game to play while I have something on my TV in the background

Xin Bin

Against the storm. It’s a rogue lite city builder game that basically eliminates the tedium of mid/late game management by setting a cap on how long each run goes. It runs well and the default mapping is solid. Love this game.

christian ates

Vampire Survivors, by a country mile. Emulators such as EmuDeck get an honorable mention.

miscu

This was gonna be my choice. This was the perfect comfy game to finally play through portably during a vacation.

Aaron J

EmuDeck, hands down.

Justin Hart

The Linux Terminal (Hon. mention: EmuDeck, Batman: Arkham Knight, Neon White)

Kristian

Emudeck/Emulationstation — tinkering with adding ROMs, artwork, and getting everything to run optimally is also a game in itself.

Yagsti

Metroid Prime, Yakuza Kiwami, Nier Automata, and Persona 5. With a little Space Cadet Pinball as a palate cleanser

Greg Petrie

Vampire Survivors. End of discussion.

Alex Quinn

Crusader Kings 3 has consumed me.

Sam New

Tony Hawks Underground

DaddyWarbucks

Dome Keeper is great for the steam deck

garret

SnowRunner should at least get an honorable mention

Sebastian Kleboth

Persona 5: Royal. The game is surprisingly bite-sized, making it a great fit for small bursts.

The Crazy Man

Peglin is probably the game I played the most of (to my detriment), the game I enjoyed playing most on it was likely Spark the Electric Jester 3. So I'm torn. I would also put Tinykin on there, but I also played the whole thing on Xbox first.

Justin

This probably won't appeal to a lot of people out there but I've found that the Deck is great for games you might not feel like firing up on a desktop, such as Visual Novels, so with that in mind I found "Hush Hush" to be a delightful deck game. 👍

Glass

Vampire Survivors. I just keep coming back to it for the 20 minutes of no-stakes enjoyment.

Mason W

Vampire survivors.

nahcq

Lunistice works super well with the controls and the screen, levels aren't ever too long.

FameDouglas

Vampire Survivors Bought it out of curiosity and all my friends and my girlfriend got obsessed.

Mark Booker

Vampire survivors. I've played more of Yakuza 5 (thanks Proton GE), but that game has been great on Deck

feliscele

Fallout 4. It runs near flawlessly with very few tweaks, especially in comparison to the console hardware it was originally released on. VATS makes the shooting much better suited to the handheld Deck controls than any other shooters I’ve played on it and the proc-gen quests and largely disposable story feel tailor-made for pick-up-and-play bitesize sessions.

David Winter

Rush Rally Origins - a simple and cheap top down racer but it does what any good racing game has to do regardless of graphics and features - it nails the handling.

Lysandus

Elden Ring and emudeck

Ricktor_Black

I had the most fun this year with Dishonored on the Steam Deck - it's the perfect example of the type of game I play on that console (besides emulation)

Legion Vs Ninja

Tactics Ogre Reborn... Spelunky 2 is a close second, tho.

Tucker Raccoon

My favorite games to play on it are puzzle games. Baba is you, Patrick's Parabox mostly. The best part is you can clock down the tdp and gpu to minimum, they still play great and now youll get like 5-6 hours of battery

PastaPirate

Vampire Survivors with an honorable mention to Yakuza 0.

MunnyShh

For me, it was FFVI Pixel Remaster last year. I was able to chip away at it (and the grinding I wanted to do) in small chunks before and while lying in bed. + I had easily replaced the font.

mitchellb760

Somehow it’s Death Stranding for me.

Anders Widebrant

art of rally has been the game I've had the most fun with so far on the deck. I think it's just the right balance of challenging and laid back.

John Summers

yes! that and the other Funselektor game, Absolute Drift. simple, zen, satisfying.

Mikhail Popov

Vampire Survivors. I 100%ed that game almost entirely while taking care of business on the toilet (that’s the only time I had for games that year as a new dad) and I couldn’t have done it without Steam Deck making it possible.

Chris Chan

+1 for Art of Rally. Great game for the Deck.

Rhett Woody

World of Warcraft It takes a little tinkering to set it up properly, but with the ConsolePort addon, it works incredibly well. With a new expansion out in 2022 and the kind of gaming schedule I have these days with a 4 year old daughter, being able to level and do light stuff like world quests without having to leave the couch or drag out the laptop setup was extremely satisfying. Honorable mention to Persona 4 Golden.

coribald

Robotics;Notes Elite is my weird answer. The deck is *finally* a way to play PC visual novels and JRPGs that have PC-only, desperately-needed fan translation patches, and R;N absolutely blew me away - I loved it *so much*. The idea of sitting at my PC to play a visual novel has always been terrible (suffered through Steins;Gate that way). Problem finally solved.

Captain Ginyu

Persona 4 Golden! I dumped another 40-50 hours into it last year, all on the Steam Deck. Maybe 2023 will be the year I finally finish it? 🤔

David Doel

Umm does EmuDeck count? Just made the emulation process so easy, being able to play Frequency and Amplitude on a handheld is enough of a reason to own a SteamDeck. But if I have to pick an actual game then Vampire Survivors is pretty damn good on there.

Rakete

Rogue Legacy 2 It is my most played game on the deck, vampire survivors comes in as a close second for me

Zain Abba

Stray Runs superbly on the Deck. I didn't actually care that much for the game, but it looks incredible and plays well too.

Randy Fitzpatrick

Vampire Survivors. 99% of my Steam Deck time has been with this game.

Rene Tetrault

My Deck is collecting dust. I'm thinking I should just sell it.

Luis Gomez

Vampire Survivors for sure

normal cool adult male

It's gotta be Vampire Survivors. Very closely followed by EmuDeck and EX-Zodiac (I guess I could really just play Space Harrier and Star Fox on EmuDeck if I wanted to, though)