Steam Deck Verified: What the Compatibility Ratings Actually Mean
The badge on a game’s Steam page is Valve’s short answer to “will this work on my Steam Deck?” It has four levels, and each one is defined by a few specific checks. Knowing what those checks cover, and what they leave out, tells you when to trust the badge and when to look further.
Checked October 20, 2026 against Valve’s Deck Verified and Steam Deck OLED pages, both of which carry 2022 copyright notices, so Valve’s wording may have changed since.
The four ratings
Valve’s Deck Verified page defines the four categories this way:
- Verified: the game works great on Steam Deck, right out of the box.
- Playable: the game may need some manual tweaking by the user. Valve’s examples are selecting a community controller config and using the touchscreen to get through a launcher.
- Unsupported: the game is currently not functional on Steam Deck.
- Unknown: Valve has not checked the game for compatibility yet.
Unknown is not a verdict. It means the game has not been reviewed.
The four checks behind a Verified badge
According to Valve, a game is Deck Verified when it passes four checks:
- Input: full controller support, controller icons that match, and the on-screen keyboard appearing automatically when text is needed.
- Display: support for the Deck’s default resolution of 1280x800 or 1280x720, sensible default settings, and legible text.
- Seamlessness: no compatibility warnings, and any launcher that can be navigated with a controller.
- System Support: if the game runs through Proton, the game and all its middleware must be supported by Proton, which Valve says includes anti-cheat.
Valve’s page does not give a frame-rate target. A Verified game has passed this checklist, and the rest of the picture, such as how smooth it feels in a heavy scene, is up to you and other players to find out.
Do ratings differ on the OLED model?
According to Valve, no. The Deck Verified page says every tested title keeps its rating on both the LCD and OLED models, and adds that nothing changes for Steam Deck OLED.
The hardware does differ. Valve’s OLED page lists a 7.4-inch screen at up to 90Hz instead of 7 inches at 60Hz, a 6nm APU, memory at 6400 MT/s, and a 50Wh battery instead of 40Wh. The OLED model went on sale on November 16, 2023, according to Game Informer’s review.
Ratings change over time
Valve describes the review as ongoing. Its page says new titles and game updates arrive on Steam every day, that improvements to the Deck itself can let previously Unsupported games run, and that Valve works to keep the ratings current. The page does not say how often a game is re-reviewed, so an old rating can lag behind the game’s latest patch. If a game you care about was Unsupported or Playable a while ago, check its compatibility details again.
On Steam you can open the compatibility details for any reviewed title, in the store or in your library, and Valve says these give the specifics behind the rating. For a Playable game, that is where to look for what needs tweaking.
When the badge is not enough
For games rated Unknown, or when you want player experience on top of Valve’s rating, the community site ProtonDB collects reports from players. GamingOnLinux’s Proton guide describes its rating scale, from Platinum down to Gold, Silver, Bronze and Borked, and says anything below Gold is likely to need manual effort. ProtonDB ratings come from player reports, not from Valve, and the two systems do not map one to one.
A simple routine:
- Read Valve’s rating and open the compatibility details.
- For Playable games, note what Valve says needs adjusting before you buy.
- For Unknown games, check ProtonDB reports and be ready to tweak.
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