Steam store pages now show the average frame rate that players actually get in thousands of games on Steam Deck, and Valve has started asking desktop PC users to share the same data. “With today’s update, you can now see the average framerate players get in games on Steam Deck,” Valve said in its Steam Deck Framerate announcement, which went live late on 9 November. The figure sits in the Steam Deck Compatibility section of each store page, under “Learn more”, with a histogram behind it. Valve calls the Deck rollout “a stepping stone toward providing framerate data for more devices than just Steam Deck”, although it has given no date for desktop PCs.
The feature has been months in the making. TalkEsport reported in April that Steam was testing FPS estimates in its client beta, with Valve saying at the time that it would “focus on devices running SteamOS”. That beta is what now feeds the public numbers. Some posts circulating this weekend suggest Steam already estimates performance for any PC, but the store data so far covers Steam Deck only, and desktop collection is still at the opt-in stage.
Steam’s frame rate numbers come from opted-in players on default settings
The average is “calculated using data from customers who have opted in to providing framerate data,” Valve said. The setting sits under Steam’s account settings, in the Data and Browsing section, as Anonymous Game Framerate Data, and the Steam library prompts players to switch it on. The data comes from the same frame rate reporting tool Valve built for developers, who have been able to see similar figures for their own games in Steamworks for months. A game needs a minimum number of samples before its figure appears.
Valve also limits which players’ numbers count towards the average. Only Decks running the default frame limit contribute, which means 60fps on the LCD model and 90fps on the OLED model, and the data does not account for custom graphics settings or power limits. That sounds like a weakness, but once the effect of vertical sync is taken into account, Valve says it has “found that the framerate data consolidates around relatively narrow ranges”. Every Deck uses the same AMD chip design and a 1280×800 screen, so one game’s numbers from thousands of players can be compared directly.
The histogram matters more than the headline figure. An average of 45fps can hide a game that swings between 60fps in menus and 25fps in combat, while the distribution shows how much time is spent at each frame rate. Stutters and hitches appear as small columns at the low end of the chart. One limit remains, however: an average cannot show whether frames were rendered by the GPU or created by frame generation, and it is not yet clear how Valve treats generated frames.
Deck Verified badges were not enough, Valve admits
Valve’s reason for publishing the data is a candid one. Its Deck Verified programme rates games against fixed criteria, and Valve says that testing “may not match every customer’s bar for acceptable gameplay”. A game can be Verified while running at 30fps, which some players accept and others do not. The new figures cover games rated Verified, Playable and Unsupported, so buyers can now see performance even where Valve’s badge says little.
For buyers, this changes the way people check performance before paying. Until now, the safest test was to buy a game and rely on Steam’s refund policy. That allows refunds within 14 days of purchase, as long as the game has been played for under two hours. Real averages from thousands of players also make poor ports harder to hide. A studio that ships a game running at 20fps on Deck will now see that number on its own store page.
The numbers are only as good as the opt-in rate, however. Valve says a majority of Deck players have already agreed to share data, although smaller games may take time to reach the sample threshold. Thousands of games already have data, Valve says, and that number will grow as more players opt in.
Desktop PCs are much harder to measure than a Steam Deck
The desktop rollout is where the feature gets difficult. A new Steam Client Beta asks desktop users to opt in to sharing anonymised frame rate data, and Valve says the prompt will reach everyone later. Unlike the Steam Deck, desktop PCs come in thousands of processor, graphics card, memory and resolution combinations, with different drivers and settings on top. Valve has not said whether it will group results by graphics card, by processor or by complete systems.
Valve already has a map of that hardware. Its monthly Hardware and Software Survey tracks which graphics cards and processors Steam users own, so the company knows which configurations are common enough to produce reliable averages. An obvious starting point would be the most popular graphics cards, although Valve has not confirmed any plan. It has also not said whether its own Steam Machine, which runs SteamOS on fixed hardware, will be the next device to get its own figures.
Desktop data would land at a useful moment for PC buyers. Memory costs have pushed up hardware prices this year. AMD has cut Radeon supply in China and Nvidia has reportedly cancelled a 24GB RTX 5080, so knowing whether an existing card can run a new game matters more. The data is anonymised and opt-in, a point Valve will need to keep clear after a data breach at one of its logistics partners. Valve is taking feedback in the comments on its announcement, and it has not given a timeline for the wider rollout.
