Steam

Steam itself is completely free to download and use. You pay for individual games. Steam Wallet lets you add funds for purchases. Some games are free-to-play (Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2). Steam Sales offer significant discounts — games can be 50-90% off during the Summer Sale (late June/July) and Winter Sale (December). Steam Family Sharing lets household members share libraries.

Steam is better for library size, community features, modding support, and familiarity — it's simply where most PC gaming happens. Epic Games Store is better if you want free games (they give away premium titles weekly, worth $1,000+/year) and slightly better revenue splits for developers. For most gamers, Steam is the primary platform with Epic as a supplement for free games. Many games are exclusive to one platform, so checking both is worthwhile.

Steam Deck is Valve's handheld gaming PC, released in 2022, that runs SteamOS (Linux-based) and plays most of the Steam library. It starts at $399 (512GB LCD) and $649 (1TB OLED). Steam Deck is not a Nintendo Switch competitor in the traditional sense — it's a full PC that happens to be portable, running PC games. Verified/Playable game ratings tell you how well each game runs on the device. It's best for players who already have large Steam libraries.