Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're comparing sales of a product in a nascent category (PC gaming handhelds) produced by a company with near zero retail presence with a marketing campaign almost entirely focused on their existing (Steam) user base to Nintendo , a long standing retail giant that has dominated the market for decades who follow an entirely different business model. That's not to say they're incomparable , particularly in how they p…
> Valve might not directly profit from the sale of GPD, Aya or Asus PC gaming handhelds, but they still get their percentage from every Steam software sale made on them But those handhelds, being quite expensive, almost certainly sold much less than the Steam Deck, which itself didn't sell overly well.
It's Switch vs. Steam, which is available on desktop, laptop and handheld form factors and in the future likely a lot more (see box86/FEX, Chromebooks, Deckard). Valve doesn't care where you buy your games, they care that you buy them from Valve.
Valve don't need Steam Deck to become as big as Switch, Steam as a whole already is.