# Steam Link

32 Hacker News commenters recommended Steam Link and 13 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for smooth streaming of PC games to TVs and phones. Common caveat: wireless struggles at 1080p and with games that need fast response.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable, works well for years (5 comments): "got some of those older SteamLink and they work well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47360015)) "it still worked the last time i used it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650855)) "it worked good about 99% of the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48634828))
- Smooth, seamless streaming experience (4 comments): "The streaming experience is _smooth_ whether it's my phone or the TV, it Just Works and we can all play from our own libraries anywhere in the house." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47432352)) "It actually please extremely well on the Quest 3 with the Steam Link app. Seamless." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907061)) "It's close to imperceptible in normal usage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45907846))
- Phone and tablet play via app (3 comments): "The streaming experience is _smooth_ whether it's my phone or the TV, it Just Works and we can all play from our own libraries anywhere in the house." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47432352)) "I can already stream any steam game on any android and iphone out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48642870)) "the phone-app helps a lot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48981708))
- Couch co-op on the TV (3 comments): "I have a Nvidia Shield with Steam Link to stream games from my gaming computer to my TV" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916793)) "My partner and I use ours regularly to play co-op games on our TV." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46838381)) "I've come to accept it for the convenience of playing on the couch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47104555))

## What people warn about

- Input lag hurts real-time games (4 comments): "steam link is basically unusable for me with games that need a real-time response" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975910)) "the input latency from the controller is substantially worse on the Apple TV" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50075170)) "there is some android TV bug that adds an unacceptable audio lag" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48691630))
- Frequent failures and bad experiences (4 comments): "I've only ever had a terrible experience with the Steam link" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47442337)) "I gave up using the Steam Link fairly early" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45908432)) "watch them fail spectacularly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45915076))
- Needs wired connection for quality (2 comments): "it worked fine for me wirelessly, but for 1080p or more wired is more or less required" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48650882)) "I was only happy with the Steam Link when it was using a wired connection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48646361))
- Dated hardware, weaker stream quality (2 comments): "the way Steam encodes the stream is reportedly lower quality than Sunshine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50214179)) "Steam Link is very oudated hardware which does not support modern codecs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48696476))

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://store.steampowered.com/remoteplay)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Steam Link", https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam-link/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).