The most obvious way to play Steam games on your Chromebook is to stream them through the Steam Link Android app. The app connects your Chrome OS device to a local PC with Steam installed and configured. Note: you’ll need to have “Remote Play” enabled in Steam.

Install Steam Using Borealis on Select Chromebooks

Borealis is a new Linux container created by Google Chrome and Steam developers that aims to bring native Steam support to Chromebooks. Unlike Crostini (Google’s previous effort to bring Linux apps to Chrome OS), which was developed in Debian, Borealis is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and focuses on performance and gaming. From Chrome version 14583.0.0, an alpha version of Steam is available to install in the dev channel, but there is a substantial hardware requirement to enable this feature. As most of the Chromebooks are under-powered and geared towards educational usage, only a handful are actually compatible.

Supported Devices

If you want to enable Steam on Chrome OS, you will need 8GB of RAM (or more), an 11th-gen i5/i7 processor (or later), and Intel Iris Xe Graphics support. Find the list of supported laptops below:

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

Switching to the Dev Channel

Before installing Steam, you need to switch to the ChromeOS dev channel by following the instructions below. Note: the dev channel is inherently less stable, so before switching channels, we recommend that you back up your data.

Installing Steam on Your Chromebook

Enable Proton to Play Windows Games

Proton is a fork of Wine: a Windows compatibility layer designed to allow users to run Windows apps and games on Linux. Proton was developed by Steam and provides a great avenue to play Windows games on Linux and Chromebooks. Without Proton you can only play games which have native Linux binaries, and there aren’t many. Native Linux games tend to be less maintained by their developers, and due to evolving Linux standards, they soon become unplayable and obsolete. However, Proton is well supported in Chromebooks, so it gives you access to a much larger library of games. Follow the below steps to enable it in Steam:

Install Steam on Any Chromebook

The above method shows how to run Steam using project Borealis. However, if you have an unsupported Chromebook, you can use the default Linux installation, which is supported by Crostini virtualization (or opt for the first method). In this section we walk you through the steps of installing Steam on a Chromebook by using a Linux partition.

Enable Linux on Chromebook

If you haven’t enabled Linux support on your Chromebook, make sure you do so before proceeding further.

Enable GPU Acceleration in Linux

GPU acceleration is necessary to run GUI Linux apps on Chromebooks. Otherwise, GUI apps may lag and tear due to lack of hardware support in your Chromebook. If you haven’t enabled GPU acceleration in Linux yet, follow the steps below to do so.

Install Steam on Chromebook

Install Steam on Chrome OS Flex Laptops

Chrome OS Flex doesn’t come preinstalled on Chromebooks. Download Chrome OS Flex from the official website and install it on your device. This is very handy if you have an old laptop. Even if Chrome OS Flex looks similar to standard Chrome OS at the surface, it has some drawbacks. For instance, Chrome OS Flex doesn’t support the Google Play Store and is not very stable compared to the original Chrome OS. Therefore, you may encounter some weird bugs when installing Steam, so proceed with caution. You can use Flatpak (sandboxed application manager built primarily for GUI apps) to install Steam on your Chrome OS Flex laptop. Image credit: Andrew Neel via Unsplash All screenshots by Mehvish Mushtaq and Hrishikesh Pathak