Google and Valve to End Steam Support for Chromebooks by 2026

Steam, the popular gaming platform, will no longer be supported on Chromebooks from January 1, 2026, as announced by Google and Valve. The platform, which remains in beta for ChromeOS, will cease its operations on this date. Currently, users can still install Steam on their devices, but a notice has been issued to alert them about the upcoming end of support.

The notification informs users that the Steam for Chromebook Beta program will conclude at the beginning of 2026. Consequently, any games installed as part of this Beta program will no longer be accessible after this date. This decision marks the end of an initiative that began in early 2022, seeking to make gaming more accessible on ChromeOS through Steam.

Steam’s introduction to Chromebooks initially required high specifications, with early versions only available on a limited selection of Intel-powered devices. As the beta evolved, support was expanded to AMD CPUs and GPUs, reducing system requirements. Despite these changes, both Google and Valve have remained largely silent regarding the program’s progress until now.

The Steam on Chromebooks was integral to Google's push for 'gaming ChromeOS', focusing on enhancing hardware capabilities. High-refresh-rate screens were introduced, and services like GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming were optimized. However, efforts to incorporate Steam into ChromeOS have been ongoing since at least 2020.

While the Proton compatibility layer enabled many Windows games to run on Linux-based systems like Valve’s SteamOS, the Chromebooks’ lower-end hardware posed challenges. With only 99 games optimized for these devices, many faced performance issues due to older, less powerful processors and graphics capabilities that fall short of modern standards.

At one point, there were attempts to incorporate Nvidia GeForce GPUs into Chromebooks, with substantial development progress made. However, these efforts were eventually abandoned. The reasons behind Steam’s upcoming departure could be tied to low usage numbers or hardware limitations. Additionally, Google might be closing down ChromeOS-associated projects as it aims to merge its Android and ChromeOS platforms in the future.

For the time being, the future of gaming on Chromebooks appears to lean heavily towards cloud-based solutions.