Steam Big Picture
Ranked 5 of 8 game launchers by recommenders
Turns a Windows PC into a gamepad-friendly, TV-style game launcher that many find works well. Critics say it has rough edges and is clumsy outside its intended use.
Turns a Windows PC into a gamepad-friendly, TV-style game launcher that many find works well. Critics say it has rough edges and is clumsy outside its intended use.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 62%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Turns a PC into a console
“with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better console”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)” “Steam Big Picture turns my big Windows machine at home into a game console”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “Resetting Xbox” Works well with game controllers
“with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better console”
Comment from 8 Jul 2026 in “PlayStation can delete all your digital games after 3 years of inactivity (EU)” “a game controller works also really well with something like Steam Big Picture”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft Copilot AI Comes to LG TVs, and Can't Be Deleted” “Steam Big Picture is very couch friendly, if you're using a game pad”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Netflix kills casting from its mobile app to most modern TVs” Works, despite rough edges
“Sure it's just Orca and ESpeak TTS, but I mean Steam Big Picture works.”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Valve is about to win the console generation” “Steam's Big Picture mode works, but there are lots of sharp edges”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “GTA 6 will cost $80”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rough edges and jankiness
“Steam's Big Picture mode works, but there are lots of sharp edges”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “GTA 6 will cost $80” “my wife uses big picture mode on a PC. And both are full of jankiness”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's 'unhackable' Xbox One has been hacked by 'Bliss'”
Other game launchers people recommend
The four most recommended other game launchers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heroic Games Launcher | 50 | 9 | 85% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Lutris | 33 | 12 | 73% | 8 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| GOG Galaxy | 18 | 24 | 43% | 5 | — | — |
| Battle.net | 12 | 8 | 60% | 7 | — | — |
| Steam Big PictureThis page | 8 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Valve knocked the new bpm out of the park.”
“with Steam Big Picture and either an XBOX ONE or PS4/5 controller your PC is a better console”
“Well it turned mine into a 2000s linux/wine debugfest flashback when I wanted to play GTA IV”
“Steam Big Picture turns my big Windows machine at home into a game console”
“launchers, games without a gamepad UI or designed for TV viewing, Windows Update”
“Steam's Big Picture mode works, but there are lots of sharp edges”
“my wife uses big picture mode on a PC. And both are full of jankiness”
“even Steam IMO is worse than most consoles”
“You can have a "full screen launcher", but you have to boot to Explorer and then run your Big Picture Mode.”
“a game controller works also really well with something like Steam Big Picture”
“the Steam overlay allows you to map controller inputs to anything, uniquely for every given app you run through it”
“Steam Big Picture is very couch friendly, if you're using a game pad”
“Sure it's just Orca and ESpeak TTS, but I mean Steam Big Picture works.”
“Steam Big Picture mode is unusable, runs at about 2 fps.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.