Can You Play CS2 On The Steam Deck?

Counter Strike Global Offensive is the most popular competitive shooter on the Steam Platform. It has a vibrant and progressing e-sports scene that has taken the game to the highest of heights and is one of the biggest FPS shooters to date.

Maybe you are looking to play the newly released CS2 on the Steam deck?

Read below for more information to see if it’s possible.

CS2 Steam Deck

CS2 is available to play on the Steam Deck as it is a Steam that is created by Valve and can be downloaded from the Steam Store under the Steam Deck category.

Compatibility Review

While Valve’s official handheld device may not be the ideal way to play those intense competitive matches, it still works perfectly however it does have controller support. This game is certainly not designed to be used with a controller as you can easily get outperformed by those that are using a mouse and keyboard. The developers never optimized the game for controller support, Counter-Strike has always been developed with Mouse and Keyboard at the forefront, this is noticeable within the movement and gunplay gameplay.

Additionally, if you truly want to play Counter-Strike on the Steam Deck effectively we recommend that you connect a Keyboard and Mouse by using a dock as this allows for that more traditional Counter-Strike experience by default.

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Performance Review

Counter-Strike requires 85GB of disk space, which takes quite a big chunk of the system space, especially if you are playing on the entry 64GB model of the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck specs can be found on the official Steam website.

Deathmatches and Casual Matches are when the Steam Deck starts to struggle. Due to the amount of action, the frames can drop to 40 – 50 frames and sometimes even lower. In less demanding situations frames can often hit the 70-80 frame mark.

With all the graphics lowest and FSR on the performance setting it still struggles to maintain 60 fps, especially in those extra demanding situations and can be an issue. This can prove to be vital and can cost you a few rounds and even games due to the FPS stutters.

To get the best playable configuration to match that of a Low tier PC, we recommend that you lock your FPS to about 40FPS for a working and stable experience.

The Steam Deck is casually more suited to Indie games and slower titles, these platforms are where the Steam Deck excels.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Counter-Strike 2 is playable on the Steam Deck. We only recommend that you stick to playing private matches and non-competitive games. Playing competitive games will not be good for players using the Steam Deck due to it being not optimized for a controller. In combination with the Low FPS on the Steam Deck, it can be a stressful time especially if you are looking for that competitive edge fix for on-the-go gaming. Counter-Strike 2 is not yet available on Console.