Can You Play Marvel Rivals on Steam Deck?

Marvel Rivals drops on December 6th, bringing team-based superhero action to PC. This new 6v6 shooter lets you team up with friends and use special combo moves with Marvel characters from across the universe.

If you’re thinking about playing it on your Steam Deck, here’s everything you need to know about compatibility and performance.

Will Marvel Rivals Run on Steam Deck?

The short answer is yes – you can play Marvel Rivals on Steam Deck. Though you won’t find any Steam Deck icons on the store page right now, the developers mentioned during a Discord Q&A that the game will work on the handheld. But there are some important things to think about before you hit that download button.

First off, this game needs some serious power to run well. The minimum specs ask for 16GB of RAM and at least a GTX 1060 graphics card. That’s already pushing what the Steam Deck can handle. You’ll probably need to turn down quite a few settings to get it running smoothly.

Storage is another big thing to think about. Marvel Rivals takes up 70GB of space. If you’ve got the basic Steam Deck or even the 256GB version, you might need to clear out some games or use an SD card. Just keep in mind that loading from an SD card might make those wait times between matches a bit longer.

What to Expect When You Play Marvel Rivals on Steam Deck?

Since the game just came out, nobody knows exactly how well it runs on Steam Deck yet, but from what we saw on Steam community discussions – people were already complaining about its performance on Steam Deck during the test phases. The developers haven’t said much about Steam Deck optimization, so you might run into some bugs or performance issues in the first few weeks.

If you want to try it out, start with low graphics settings. You can always turn things up if it runs better than expected. Make sure you’ve got enough space cleared out for that big download, and try to play somewhere with good internet since it’s an online-only game.

The controls might take some getting used to as well. Team-up moves and character abilities need quick inputs, and the Steam Deck’s layout is different from a keyboard and mouse. You’ll probably want to spend some time in practice mode getting comfortable with everything.

The Bottom Line

Marvel Rivals will work on your Steam Deck but don’t expect it to run perfectly right away. The game needs pretty strong hardware to run well, so you’ll need to be patient and willing to adjust settings until you find what works.

If you’re planning to play competitively, you might want to stick to PC, but for casual matches and practice, the Steam Deck version should do the job once you get it set up right.