Steam Deck performance has come a long way for first-person shooters. I went back through our own testing and pulled out the 10 best FPS games you can play on the handheld in 2026: titles that critics and players still love, and that actually hold up on the Deck, not just on a store badge. The list counts down from 10 to 1, from Trepang2’s slow-mo chaos to a maxed-out, locked-60 Half-Life 2.
How we judged Steam Deck performance
A couple of ground rules sat behind every pick. Big critic scores and big player love both count, but they are not enough on their own. The game has to be Verified or Playable on the Deck, and it has to hold up in our own testing. If anti-cheat locks the handheld out, it is not on the list, which is why Call of Duty stays off it. Every clip we used for this rundown was our own Deck gameplay, including a few heavier games that still impress when you meet them halfway on settings.
10. Trepang2
If you ever missed F.E.A.R., Trepang2 is the one I would point you at first. Slow-mo, slide kicks and some of the punchiest gunplay of the last few years still make it a joy on the go, even if the story is thin. It is sitting at 94% positive on Steam, and Valve now rates it Verified.
When we tested it, the medium preset held a solid 60 frames all the way through. Push it to High and it drops to around 30, so I would stick with Medium. For pure chaotic fun on the Deck, it is hard to beat, and it is a fair place to start this countdown.
9. Metro Exodus
Metro Exodus is the “how is this running on a handheld?” pick. On High we saw 40 to 60 frames per second. It looked gorgeous, but the frame rate was all over the place, and cutscenes dropped into the 30s. Drop it to Medium, though, and most of the gameplay sits right around 60, with only the cutscenes dipping into the 40s. It still looks fantastic.
Critics gave it 85, players are at 87%, and Valve rates it Playable. One practical warning from our time with it: changing settings can take a minute or two to apply on the Deck, so be patient before you assume nothing happened.
8. Wolfenstein: The New Order
Wolfenstein: The New Order honestly blew me away. We ran High settings at the Deck’s native resolution, and it just does not drop below 60. Frame time stayed flat the whole time. The clip we used was actually the Epic Games Store version running through Proton, and it still ran like that. The Steam version is fully Verified.
Great story, chunky gunplay, and it runs like it was made for the handheld. If you love it, the sequels are waiting.
7. Halo: The Master Chief Collection
Halo: The Master Chief Collection packs six Halo games into one package, and it is one of the best-value buys on the Deck. Every game in the collection ran at a full 60 with the enhanced graphics turned on, and that includes multiplayer. Yes, online Halo on a handheld.
One honest warning: when we tested it, it sometimes crashed with a fatal error on launch, roughly two times out of five. Just restart it and you are in. Valve rates it Playable. It is at 91% positive from over 160,000 players, and it holds an 87 on OpenCritic.
6. Cyberpunk 2077
Is Cyberpunk 2077 the smoothest game on this list? No. Is it one of the most impressive things you can run on a Deck? Absolutely. It is Verified, and it is still getting updates. We tested version 2.5 on Steam Deck just last month. With the Steam Deck preset, you are looking at around 30 to 35 frames, and the busiest part of Dogtown still dips into the 20s.
Add a community upscaler and frame generation plugin, and we were seeing 60 on screen, with some input latency you will notice in fights. It is a heavy game, but it looks better on the Deck now than it ever has. With 89% positive from over 400,000 reviews, it has earned its comeback.
5. Deep Rock Galactic
Deep Rock Galactic is the co-op pick, and the scoreline tells you why. It sits at 97% positive, which is overwhelmingly positive territory, and it shows: procedurally generated caves, space dwarves and swarms of bugs, plus that familiar Rock and Stone energy when a mission goes sideways.
On the Deck we ran it close to the default Ultra settings and saw 50 to 90 frames uncapped. Cap it at 60 and it is basically locked, with just the odd blip when the flamethrowers and swarms all go off at once. If you want more battery, use the 40 Hz mode and you will barely feel the difference. Valve rates it Playable mainly because some text is small. In our testing, it plays great.
4. BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite still holds a 94 on Metacritic, and more than a decade later it holds up. We did not change a thing: default High settings, straight out of Proton, and we got over 60 frames per second even riding the skylines in the middle of a fight. No real dips.
The floating city of Columbia, those vigors, that story: it is a must-play. If you have never played it, the Deck is the perfect excuse to start.
3. DOOM Eternal
id Software builds some of the best-optimised engines on the planet, and DOOM Eternal on the Deck proves it. On the default High preset, it mostly holds 60 frames. In the craziest arena fights you will see dips into the mid-40s and 50s, but it moves so fast you barely notice.
It even supports ray tracing on the Deck now. Turn that on with Medium settings and you can hold over 30, with much shinier reflections. Valve rates it Playable mostly because some text is small. It has an 88 with critics and 91% with players, and it is a pure adrenaline shot on a handheld.
2. Titanfall 2
Titanfall 2 still has wall-running, double jumps, giant robots and one of the best FPS campaigns ever made. It is at 95% positive, and people still talk about it. On the Deck, the campaign is a perfect 60 from start to finish. In multiplayer we pulled the caps off and saw 60 to 100 frames per second, so cap it at 60 for a rock-solid experience.
And yes, the official servers are still up in 2026. Stick to Attrition at peak times and you will find a match. Valve rates it Playable because of the EA app launcher, but once you are in, it is flawless.
1. Half-Life 2
Of course number one is Half-Life 2. It has a 96 on Metacritic, 97% positive reviews, a Verified badge, and a Platinum rating on ProtonDB. We maxed out every setting, turned off motion blur, and it held a locked 60 frames per second. The frame time sat right at 16.7 milliseconds, which is basically perfect.
Valve even ships a default layout with gyro aiming on top of the sticks. It feels weird for about five minutes, and then you never want to go back. The game is 20 years old and is still the benchmark every other shooter gets measured against. On the Deck, it is flawless, and it is the clearest example on this list of Steam Deck performance at its most comfortable.
Honourable mentions, and the 2026 games that missed out
A few honourable mentions are worth naming before I wrap up. ULTRAKILL is 97% positive and Verified, but it is still in early access and it can chug in the busiest late-game levels. DOOM 2016 and Left 4 Dead 2 are both Verified, and both are absolute classics. DOOM: The Dark Ages is now Verified, but when we tested it at launch we were getting around 30 frames on Low with FSR, and it dropped under 20 in the biggest fights. Playable, sure, not top-10 smooth.
If you are wondering where the 2026 shooters are, it has been a rough year for FPS on the Deck, which also showed up in our wider AAA games on Steam Deck scorecard for 2026. Halo: Campaign Evolved needed a patch to fix its performance, and players are split on it. High on Life 2 is Verified, but reviews are mixed. And the big multiplayer names — Call of Duty, Battlefield 6 and Apex Legends — are all locked out by anti-cheat on SteamOS.
So that is the list: Half-Life 2, Titanfall 2, DOOM Eternal, BioShock Infinite, Deep Rock Galactic, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Metro Exodus and Trepang2. If you want a locked 60 and gyro aiming that just works, start at the top. If you want something heavier that still looks like a current-generation shooter, Cyberpunk 2077 and Metro Exodus show how far Steam Deck performance has come when you pick the right preset.
