Hello! With today’s update, you can now see the average framerate players get in games on Steam Deck.
This average is calculated using data from customers who have opted in to providing framerate data, and is available for games that have been tested for Deck compatibility (Verified, Playable, and Unsupported). As of this blog post, there are thousands of games with framerate data, and this number will grow as we continue to gather data. You can find average framerate data on each game’s Steam Store detail page under Steam Deck Compatibility > Learn more. This data is also available in your Steam Library on Steam Client Beta.
We’ve also added an expandable detail view with a histogram breaking down the percentage of data samples at each framerate. This is useful to see how the average is produced, as well as how often people are running into hitches or stuttering (which show up as small columns in the lower framerate values).
The current Steam Deck Verified compatibility rating is based on standardized test criteria, but it may not match every customer’s bar for acceptable gameplay. This is especially true around performance – a game with an Unsupported rating due to unstable performance may be considered playable by some customers, and a Verified game may not reach a framerate that some customers prefer to play at. By providing average framerate data for each game, customers now have a more complete picture of how the game performs on Steam Deck and can make more informed purchase and play decisions.
We see this update as a stepping stone toward providing framerate data for more devices than just Steam Deck. To this end, we are also prompting customers to opt-in to providing anonymized framerate data in the Steam desktop client. This opt-in is currently only on Steam Client Beta, and will ship to all customers in the future.
As with all of our features, we’d love to hear your feedback so we can continue to improve things. Please let us know what you think in the comments.
Where is this data coming from?
This data comes from Steam Deck players who have opted in to providing anonymized framerate data. A majority of Steam Deck players have opted in, representing a wide range of games and play styles.
How do I opt-in / opt-out of providing anonymous framerate data?
You’ll be prompted in the Steam Library (see screenshot above), and you can also change this setting in Steam Account Settings > Data & Browsing > Anonymous Game Framerate Data.
This is great, but why is this limited to just players on Steam Deck? Why can’t I see framerate data for all devices?
We’re always looking for new ways to help developers understand the experiences customers are having with their games. We’re starting with Steam Deck because every device has the same hardware configuration, making the data easier to understand. This also makes a better starting point for iteration as we learn what sorts of data and presentation are useful. Please let us know if you have feedback.
What does it mean when a game has a big gap between 90 and 45, like this? 
Gaps like these are usually the result of a mismatch between the refresh rate of the display and the framerate that the game is trying to run at. This could be due to performance or because of a setting in the game itself. When this mismatch occurs, the system will sync the game’s framerate to the display’s native refresh rate to avoid graphical glitches (tearing).
Technical details: These gaps are a consequence of VSync. When a game is not making framerate, VSync will synchronize the game’s framerate to the display’s refresh rate in order to avoid image tearing. This means that on a 90Hz display, if a game has a framerate of 75fps, VSync will force the game to present as many frames as it can at 90fps, and when it can’t make that target it will drop to 45fps, and then recover to 90fps for the next frame. This produces a pattern that averages 75fps, e.g. 90 90 45 90 90 45. Another example would be some games set an internal frame limit to 60, so on Steam Deck OLED set to default (90) it will bounce between 90 and 45 to hit 60 FPS.
Does the average framerate and histogram account for customers who change graphics settings?
The data used to produce the average framerate and the histogram is filtered to only show data from Decks that are set to the default frame limit to maintain a consistent performance bar (90 FPS for Steam Deck OLED, and 60 FPS for Steam Deck LCD). We don’t account for custom in-game settings, but despite this we’ve found that the framerate data consolidates around relatively narrow ranges.
What if a game doesn’t have many players?
To ensure the quality of the data, we have a minimum threshold of anonymous data points collected before we will generate and show average framerates and distribution to customers.
