Epic pulled Rocket League from the Steam storefront on Sept. 24, 2020, which puts early Steam Deck adopters in a bit of an odd position. With hundreds of Steam titles available to play at launch, the Steam Deck library isn’t light on options, but if you missed the boat on Rocket League, playing it on the new handheld could be slightly more laborious.
Rocket League is playable out of the gate as long as you owned it on Steam before Epic bought Psyonix and pulled the game from Valve’s storefront. Since Rocket League is no longer available to new players on Steam, those who are looking to try it out for the first time on the Steam Deck will have to go through a bit of a process to get Rocket League up and running.
The quickest way to access games from your Epic Games Store library is to download the Windows version through Proton. Gaming on Linux’s guide is fairly easy to follow and can get you up and running in a matter of minutes. After that, Rocket League should be good to go.
If you’re in the market to download several other launchers, then a full Windows install might be more worth your time. By installing Windows, you can easily download launchers like Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect, or whatever new thing EA has created this year. Because the Windows drivers for Steam Deck are unfinished at the time of publication, there may be some issues with sound and WiFi. To install Windows on Steam Deck, follow this guide.
For those lucky enough to have copped Rocket League in the Steam glory days, you might consider checking the compatibility of the rest of your library with your free time. You can do this by visiting the Great on Deck page or by using the CheckMyDeck tool along with this guide.
