Steam for Chromebook Beta Will Be Discontinued in January 2026

The Steam beta that launched on select Chromebooks back in 2022 will soon be discontinued. As reported by 9to5Google, launching Steam on supported Chromebooks now shows a notification telling users that the app and all Steam games will no longer run starting in January 2026.

“The Steam for Chromebook Beta program will conclude on January 1st, 2026. After this date, games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device. We appreciate your participation in and contribution to learnings from the beta program, which will inform the future of Chromebook gaming,” the message reads.

Steam on Chrome OS can run Windows games via Steam Play, which leverages the same Proton compatibility layer that Valve uses on its Steam Deck. However, Google has a limited list of games that perform well on Chromebooks based on tests conducted on devices that meet the minimum hardware requirements for the Steam Chromebook beta (at least an Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage). That list includes games like Half-Life 2, Portal 2, The Sims 3, Tetris Effect: Connected, and Vampire Survivors.

Most Chromebooks today are still low-cost devices with barely enough power to run demanding games, so it’s probably not a surprise to see this Steam for Chromebooks experiment go away. While Chromebooks can also run Android games, gaming has never really been a focus on ChromeOS, and Google’s efforts to create an ecosystem of more powerful “Chromebook Plus” devices are mostly about AI. However, Google now promotes cloud gaming services such as Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Amazon Luna on its Chromebook Plus product page.