The system works fine if you remember to deactivate old machines. It fails spectacularly when hardware dies or you forget. As long as you treat the "Deactivate" tool as part of your uninstall routine, you will likely never see the dreaded "Too many machines activated" error.
The Denuvo 5 machine activation limit highlights the uncomfortable truth of modern gaming: denuvo 5 machine activation limit
: Changing "Proton" compatibility versions is a common way to accidentally trigger all five activations in minutes. Cloud Gaming : Services like NVIDIA GeForce Now The system works fine if you remember to
: Swapping a CPU, GPU, or even updating your BIOS can be flagged as a new "machine". Linux/Steam Deck Risks denuvo 5 machine activation limit