Valve has officially confirmed that the Steam client for Linux does not support Arm-based hardware. The company clarified its position after a user reported issues with the ARM64 version of the client on a handheld device powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.
The user encountered problems with Steam Remote Play and AV1 hardware decoding while running a Fedora-based ARM64 distribution. Although the device's hardware supports AV1, the Steam client failed to utilize the necessary decoding interface. Valve closed the report, citing a long-standing feature request from 2015 regarding Arm architecture support.
Current system requirements for the Linux version of Steam explicitly mandate an x86_64 processor and kernel. While an ARM64 build of the client exists, it is restricted to the Steam Frame environment and is not intended for general use on third-party Arm-based Linux systems.
Valve is currently developing its own Arm-based hardware, the Steam Frame headset, which features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. The company is prioritizing the optimization of SteamOS and the Proton compatibility layer specifically for this device.
