What Happened to Steam Link?

Steam Link began its journey in November 2015 as a dedicated hardware device, a small streaming box designed by Valve to bring PC gaming to the living room television. Priced at $49.99, it utilized Valve's "In-Home Streaming" technology to stream games from a host PC over a local network, supporting 1080p at 60Hz with low latency. The device aimed to compete with other streaming solutions but faced challenges in market adoption, with some users finding its performance inconsistent depending on network conditions and host PC specifications.

In a strategic shift, Valve announced the discontinuation of the Steam Link hardware in November 2018, selling off remaining stock. This decision was driven by the company's pivot towards a software-centric approach, recognizing the growing ubiquity of mobile devices and smart TVs capable of running streaming applications. Valve assured continued support for existing hardware units while focusing on the software version, which offered greater flexibility and accessibility to a broader user base.

The transition to software began even before the hardware's discontinuation, with the Steam Link app launching in beta for Android devices in May 2018. After an initial rejection by Apple due to alleged business conflicts with app guidelines, the iOS and tvOS versions of the app were eventually released in May 2019. This move significantly broadened Steam Link's reach, allowing users to stream games to their smartphones, tablets, and Apple TVs, leveraging existing hardware they already owned. Further expansion saw the app arrive on Raspberry Pi (ARM Linux) in December 2018, Windows in February 2021, and x86-64 Linux and macOS in March 2021. The app was also available on Samsung smart TVs starting in 2018, though Samsung discontinued its native app in November 2023 in favor of its Gaming Hub.

Recent years have seen continuous development and expansion of the Steam Link app, now largely synonymous with Steam Remote Play, the underlying streaming technology. In November 2023, Valve released a VR version of the Steam Link client for Meta Horizon OS, making it compatible with Meta Quest 2, 3, and Pro headsets for wirelessly streaming PC VR games. This was followed by an update in October 2024 that added Quest hand tracking support to the VR client. A significant development in June 2026 was the addition of support for Apple Vision Pro using visionOS, enabling streaming of non-VR games to the headset.

Despite the discontinuation of the hardware, the Steam Link software, powered by Steam Remote Play, remains a vital and actively maintained part of Valve's ecosystem. It receives regular updates, including a July 2026 Steam client update that introduced a 59.94 FPS framerate limit for smoother streaming to televisions and reduced frame drops, addressing common issues with display refresh rates. While some users still find the original hardware viable for 1080p streaming with a wired connection, the software app, particularly on newer devices with modern Wi-Fi, generally offers superior performance and broader compatibility, supporting up to 4K at 120 FPS with features like HDR and AV1 streaming on capable hardware as of mid-2026. The app continues to be a free and actively maintained solution for extending PC gaming beyond the desktop, evolving to support new platforms and technologies.