It has been almost three years—33 months, to be exact—since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3, and in that time, we could not stop playing it on Steam Deck. It has only fallen out of the platform’s top five most-played list in four of those 33 months. Even then, Larian’s masterpiece has never left the top ten.
Valve keeps a running list of the most-played games on Steam Deck that’s available to the public, and you can sort by weekly, monthly, and yearly winners, with the list updating each week/month/year. After seeing Gaming on Linux’s coverage of April 2026’s most-played, I decided to go back into the archives, with occasional gaps filled by Steam Deck HQ and Steam Deck Gaming on YouTube.
There’s a lot of takeaways to be had from the data—I’ve got to dust off my gunbelt and spurs and put this stuff into an Excel spreadsheet or Gdocs equivalent—but something that really surprised me is how doggedly Baldur’s Gate 3 has stayed near the top. Some stats that wowed me:
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- BG3 held the number one most-played spot for six straight months after launch, a record only surpassed by Balatro at 7 months—at least going back to August, 2023. I’d like to see how Vampire Survivors did in 2022. The runner-up? Stardew Valley with four nonconsecutive months at #1.
- BG3 stayed in the top five for exactly two years straight after launch, only dipping to number six for the first time last August.
- The lowest BG3 dropped was number eight last October, but it’s had a rebound, staying in the top five most-played games so far this year.
This all fascinates me, because Deck has never really been the best way to play Baldur’s Gate 3: It’s not on our best Steam Deck Games list, and it tends to punish the handheld’s poor little APU while sucking up every last drop of battery. I remember getting around 20-30fps on Deck around launch, a compromise I lived with because I was traveling for work at the time.
But BG3 controls well on a gamepad, and I’ve yet to see how its native Linux port improved things. Being a turn-based game as well, poor framerate isn’t as detrimental to the experience as it would be in a fast-paced action game.
It speaks to the all-encompassing popularity of Baldur’s Gate 3 that people just gotta have it, even on the go, and nearly three years on. I’ve arranged links to the most-played games by month lists since BG3’s release below, with Baldur’s Gate 3’s placement highlighted. Valve doesn’t make historical data like this readily available, so I relied on Gaming on Linux, Steam Deck HQ, and Steam Deck Gaming.
2023 (Overall: unordered top 12)
2026 (Avg. #4 so far [surprise])
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