Nexus Mods embraces SteamOS with its Vortex mod installer
Vortex is getting SteamOS support in 2026
Nexus mods have confirmed that it plans to bring its Vortex mod installer to SteamOS, with planned support for Valve’s Steam Deck and Steam Machine hardware.
Moving forward, Nexus Mods abandon its Nexus Mods App and shift its focus to Vortex. Over 1.4 million modders reportedly use Vortex each month to mod their games, and Nexus Mods plans to improve the mod installer.
Alongside SteamOS support, Nexus Mods plans to deliver a range of quality-of-life improvements. This includes streamlined navigation, improved game management, better control over mod load orders, and more. Note that while SteamOS is supported, Vortex will not officially support other Linux distributions. However, Vortex’s open-source nature will allow the community to extend support to other Linux distros.
As we move into 2026, Vortex is shifting back to the centre of our development roadmap. While we have spent the last couple of years exploring new territory with the Nexus Mods App, we have decided to consolidate our efforts and bring all that innovation directly into Vortex. Over 1.4 million modders use Vortex every month to mod their games, and we’re committed to improving their modding experience.
Our plans for the year include a steady, iterative modernisation of the Vortex user experience. We’ll be investing in the developer experience, which will allow us to focus on quality-of-life improvements, specifically streamlining navigation, simplifying game management, and introducing more intuitive controls for load orders. You can expect the interface to become cleaner and more responsive as we integrate the design lessons learned from our recent projects. Our goal is to make modding more accessible and reliable without disrupting the workflows that long-time Vortex users have come to rely on.
We’re also committing to supporting Vortex on SteamOS. We’ll be targeting vanilla Steam hardware like the Steam Deck and Steam Machine. We won’t be officially supporting any other configurations, but as Vortex is an open source project community developers will be free to extend support for their preferred Linux distros as they please.
Here’s an early proof of concept (subject to change) of the updated Vortex navigation: (see below)
With stronger SteamOS mod support, Nexus mods will be making one of PC gaming’s largest perks (game modding) easier on Valve’s gaming OS. This will help make SteamOS a stronger competitor to Windows for PC games, which is great news for gamers everywhere. While SteamOS users can just install mods manually, having access to Vortex makes modding much simpler. This is especially true if you want to mod games like Skytim heavily.
You can join the discussion on Nexus Mods’ plans to bring its mod installer to SteamOS on the OC3D Forums.
