This is how you use Steam (for now) on a Chromebook

Now it is possible for several months. At the end of March, Google released an update for Chrome OS through its developer channel that made it possible to install Steam on your Chromebook. This is an alpha-quality version of Steam available on a small number of recently released Chromebook models.

Why is Google choosing Steam now? This makes a lot of sense: Steam is the largest PC platform where gamers can buy, update and manage games. There are probably many people with an impressive Steam library who can ignore a Chromebook right now just because they can’t play games on it.

This is slowly changing now. The steps are small. Steam provides access to thousands of games, but as with Chrome OS, you can access less than fifty. This includes games like Celeste, Disco Elysium, Portal 2, Tekken 7, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Google emphasizes in its blog post that you shouldn’t get too excited about the current situation. In the meantime, things might break, as it’s an alpha version.

To install Steam on a Chromebook, you obviously need a modern Chromebook. Google currently supports the following models.

• Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1W)
• Acer Chromebook 515 (CB515-1W)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
• Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
• Asus Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
• HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
• Lenovo 5i-14 Chromebook

Chromebooks should have at least an 11th generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor with an Iris Xe card for graphics and 8GB of RAM. For now, you’d better not set the screen resolution higher than 1080p.

Also, it’s important to manually transfer your Chromebook to the Development Channel (developer mode). All you have to do is download an update and reboot the system.

If you want to go back to the regular version of Chrome later, call the function. power wash In Settings and set up the device like a new Chromebook. You can learn more about it on this support page.