The handheld PC market could hit cumulative shipments of nearly 8 million by the end of the year, analyst firm IDC predicts.
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The nascent handheld gaming PC segment has grown considerably over the years; led technically by the Switch’s mega success, Valve rolled out the pioneering Steam Deck, prompting other OEMs to also try their hands at handhelds. Now the market is filled with contenders like the MSI Claw, the Lenovo Legion Go, and the ROG Ally. Sony also got into the mix, albeit in a very limited streaming-only device (just don’t expect it to be a new wave PS Vita).
It’s hard to put exact numbers on it, but The Verge has acquired some interesting figures. While Valve had said that the Steam Deck has sold “multiple millions” of units as of the end of 2023, analysts have a more comprehensive estimate for the entire handheld PC market.
According to IDC, a firm who shared their predictions with The Verge, the handheld market had around 5.972 million total cumulative worldwide shipments at the end of 2024. Remember that these are estimates, and that the figures are shipments, not sell-through to consumers (which type of data is used depends on how the data itself is being tracked, which then determines the models used).
By the end of 2025, the handheld PC market is expected to grow by 1.9 million units and reach a total cumulative shipment milestone of around 7.898 million.
Other findings suggest that Valve’s Steam Deck has the lion’s share of this market, and that Valve could have shipped as many as 4 million Steam Deck systems by now.
As for the market itself, AMD’s Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions and Gaming Marketing in particular shared enthusiasm for the emerging new hardware segment. It’s worth mentioning that Azor co-founded Alienware, so his perspective on this particular topic is noteworthy.
“I think it’s amazing. This didn’t exist three years ago; we went from nothing, zero, to incremental category creation in the millions of units,” Azor told The Verge.
It’s believed that Microsoft is currently experimenting with its own Xbox handheld console of sorts.