Valve’s PC gaming handheld, the Steam Deck, seems to be experiencing a sales surge right now.
Wario64 shared that all Steam Deck models are out of stock in the US. We can corroborate this with our own screenshot.
The store listing also says that the entry level 256 GB LCD model is no longer in production, so it may already be unavailable from Steam.
We checked availability for a few other countries.
The UK still has all units of the Steam Deck available. In EU countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands, the OLED units are available, but the LCD model is out of stock.
Valve tapped Japanese retailer Komodo as their distributor for some Asian countries. In Komodo’s store, the OLED units are available but the LCD model is also out of stock.
Valve did not make any big hardware or software announcements this week. It looks like the Steam Deck is not being bought by gamers, but by people joining the generative AI boom.
A similar trend occurred during the blockchain/crypto boom in the 2010s. If Valve wants their hardware to be used by gamers, they have to intervene.