How to install Steam on a Chromebook | Media Pyro

One of the biggest gripes against Chromebooks is that they are no good for gaming. There are Android games, but not all of them work. You can use cloud gaming service like Xbox cloud gaming
and Nvidia GeForce Now, but that usually requires a subscription. But Google is working on a bigger solution with the help of Valve player.

Earlier this year, the duo released an alpha version of Valve’s Steam game store to try out on Chromebooks through the ChromeOS Dev channel. It has now moved out of the instability of the Dev channel and into the ChromeOS Beta channel, with support for more devices, more games and an improved user experience.

With the beta release, support was added for devices with AMD Ryzen 5000 C-series and Intel 12th-gen Core CPUs. Minimum CPU requirements have also been reduced to include Core i3 and Ryzen 3 processors and 8GB of RAM. Google still recommends i5 or Ryzen 5 and 16GB RAM for the best experience. 20 Chromebook models are now officially supported for Steam on ChromeOS.

• Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
• Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
• Acer chromebook 516 GE
• Acer Chromebook Spin 514 (CP514-3H, CP514-3HH, CP514-3WH)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (CP714-1WN)
• Acer Chromebook Vero 514
• Asus Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
• Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
• Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5601)
• Asus Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip
• Chromebook Edition Laptop
• HP Elite c640 G3 14-inch notebook
• Book hp elite c645 g2
• HP Elite Dragonfly hip book
• Book chrome hp pro c640 g2
• Lenovo IdeaPad 16 Gaming Chromebook
• Lenovo chrome book 5i-14
• Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook 14
• Driver for Lenovo ThinkPad C14

If you have one of these Chromebooks, you can access the beta-quality version of Steam on ChromeOS. You will need to switch to the Beta channel which you can do. Open the settings menu on your Chromebook and search “Channels” at the top of the window. Click on Channels and select Beta. The Chromebook will start downloading the beta version of ChromeOS. Once the update is downloaded and installed, you will then need to restart the Chromebook and it will be in the Beta channel (ChromeOS 108 or later). You are only two steps away from getting Steam.

1. Open a browser window and navigate to chrome://flags
2. Search for #borealis-enabled and set it to Enabled
3. Open the ChromeOS launcher (click the button in the lower left corner of the screen)
4. Search for “Steam” and select the app when it appears in the results
5. Follow the setup process to install Steam and sign into your account

Google has the full installation instructions on the Chromium.org forums. You’ll find a list of known issues as well as all currently supported games. It’s a surprisingly long list, including Portal 2, Dota 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Stardew Valley, Terraria, Hades, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition.

When available, Chrome OS will run the Linux version of games. Other games use a Steam Play compatibility tool called Proton. It is also used for the Steam Deck handheld gaming device. The gameplay is really quite smooth on the Chromebook Acer 713 I tested with, paired with the excellent Steelseries Stratus Plus Bluetooth controller for Chromebooks and Android.

If you are currently shopping for a Chromebook and considering that you might want to use Steam once it’s finished and ready for the public, you’ll want to keep the system requirements listed above in mind. Also, make sure you get enough storage to hold your games. Chromebooks don’t usually have high-capacity storage drives, but Steam support could force that to change.