Steam’s top choices for March includes a Steam Deck category

It’s well known by this point that Valve puts out a monthly post featuring the top 20 best selling games. It’s something I personally enjoy making a post about. I think a snapshot into what’s popular from month to month is always fun to look at. If a game manages to make the list across multiple months there’s probably something to give a deeper look at, there.

But it isn’t just a top 20 post that Valve puts together. The company covers free to play releases, DLC sales and releases by brand new developers. But it also has a floating category that changes month to month.

This month? That ever-changing category is covering the Steam Deck.

Don’t get me wrong. The standard top 20 list is still interesting to look at. When you have a massive Steam library it’s good for a quick look at what might be new and fun. But the Steam Deck category is for March, which makes it the first month after the Steam Deck launched. 

It’s a look at what Steam Deck holders decided to play first. A glimpse into the launch of a new console is a rare prize. The difference, though, is that this is a Steam console. While Valve did produce a first-party experience to coincide with the launch, first-party titles aren’t what people were buying the thing for.

What, then, did people sink their teeth into with their new portable platform? Let’s have a look:

The top 11 games on the Steam Deck in March

• The one who pulls out the sword will be crowned king
• Hero’s Hour
• Tunic
• Weird West
• Have a Nice Death
• Death Stranding Director’s Cut
• Core Keeper
• Shadow Warrior 3
• Anno: Mutationem
• Aperture Desk Job
• The Planet Crafter

As it turns out gamers wanted a little bit of everything. There’s an experimental indie title, an auto-battler, games with RPG elements, games with online co-op, rogue-lites, first person shooters, cyberpunk games, and even a crafting survival title.

We can’t forget probable game of the year contender, Tunic, which I must give props to whenever possible. That Souls-like is from developers based in my own province of Nova Scotia.

Even though the Steam Deck category was March’s floating category in Valve’s blog post I’d dearly love it to become a monthly staple. The Steam Deck might be a portable console, but people are using it very much like a standard system. Nine of the games in the category appear in the standard top 20. The other two are free-to-play titles, one of which is Valve’s own game. People are using Steam Deck like a standard, portable PC, and the games reflect that usage.

An on-going monthly look, though, could show us if the habits of people start to change. If, collectively, people decide that the Steam Deck is meant to fill a niche role, we’ll quickly have an idea based on what everyone is playing.