This Dark Souls game is still more popular than The Last of Us, nine years on

FromSoftware chief Miyazaki might be finished with the Dark Souls franchise, but we certainly aren’t. The final installment to the iconic, Lovecraftian, deliciously hellish Souls series is almost a decade old, and yet even after all this time, we’re still keeping Dark Souls III in the Steam Deck charts – and our hearts – enough to stay in front of behemoths such as The Last of Us.

This is no mean feat, and yet we’re not entirely surprised. Dark Souls III is arguably one of the best soulslike games, which should go without saying. After Dark Souls II and its relatively mixed reception, with the middle child of the series still a hotly discussed topic in the fandom, the third installment reminded us all why we loved Miyazaki’s infernal worlds so much. The formula was perfected, the narrative sent us on the occasional nostalgia trip back to Lordran, and we got to do battle with some of our favorite bosses out of all the Souls games.

The longevity of FromSoftware games has always been particularly impressive, evident in how every single one of us is still clamoring for a Bloodborne remaster, and Dark Souls III lives up to its legacy even as it approaches its decade milestone. It was an incredibly worthy send-off to the flagship series and solidified the soulslike genre as we know it.

Dark Souls III remains the only Souls game to appear on the Steam Deck charts, and it’s largely thanks to its replayability and verified status. The vanilla game runs absolutely fine on Valve’s handheld console, even on the default graphics configurations, and so it makes returning to Lothric a joy every time, even when you’re on the go.

Granted, Elden Ring sits pretty in the much higher fifth place, with only massively popular titles such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Stardew Valley keeping it from the top spot, and we’re sure if Bloodborne ever appeared on Steam – please, Sony, we’ll continue to beg for as long as it takes – it would no doubt rocket past Dark Souls III almost immediately.

But there’s no denying that we love to play the final Souls game again and again, and so it deserves its spot on the Steam Deck charts. However, if you’re after something new, check out everything we know about FromSoftware’s newest handheld-optimized title, The Duskbloods, due out on the Nintendo Switch 2 next year. We’ve also got an extensive list of the best Steam Deck games, and we take a look at whether you can play Monster Hunter Wilds on Steam Deck, too.