Steam Sale is always a big event for PC gamers. The platform offers a wide variety of great titles at significant discounts, a great opportunity to refresh your Steam library without breaking your budget. In this Steam Sale guide, we will explain everything you need to know about these limited-time promotions. Updated in October 2026.
When the Steam Sale starts
It’s safe to say that there is always some sort of sale on Steam. Anytime you go to the store page, you will see thousands of games on discount. Usually, some regular sales begin on Monday at 17:00 UTC, as they cover a certain genre: RPG, Open World, Horror, FPS, etc. These promotions are called festivals, and they are scheduled far in advance. This way, you can always prepare to save big on some type of games.
Tip: follow the calendar page to see what festivals are coming in the near future.
Some of the games can go on sale mid-week as well, and usually on Thursday or Friday, some of the games can join a “free weekend” promotion. It usually lasts about 3 days and allows users to play a game at no cost for a limited time.
Major Steam Sales
There are 4 Steam Sales that are more important than others because they offer greater discounts on a larger number of titles:
- Winter Sale begins a week before Christmas and ends a few days after New Year. It’s the bigger sale existing on Steam and it lasts longer than others.
- Spring Sale covers the period of the beginning of the warmer season, usually closer to 21 March. It lasts roughly one week.
- Summer Sale lasts two weeks, starting at the end of June and ending at the beginning of July.
- Autumn Sale goes live at the end of September or the beginning of October and usually doesn’t last longer than a week.
Valve also proposes several seasonal events, such as Halloween or Easter sales, but they are more specific and can be listed among festivals.
Points Shop
Every sale or festival has its own art style. This way, users can purchase some seasonal items, such as backgrounds, avatars, special profiles, and stickers in the Points Shop. They serve as decorations for Steam profiles and chat. It’s always useful to take a look to see if the new set of objects interests you.
Tip: during some sales, you can get animated stickers for free if you browse the discovery queue.
How to save more on Steam Sale: Tips and Tricks
Let’s proceed with the most important part of our Steam sale guide. Now that you know when the promotions start, you might be wondering how to save even more during sales. Here are several useful recommendations from us.
Prepare your wishlist
Make sure to add your desired titles to the wishlist so you can find them easily. Also, it reduces the risk of falling for a nice deal and forgetting about the games you wanted to play for a while.
Sell useless items
Do you have these backgrounds you never use and trading cards that are never going to craft a badge? Sell them on the marketplace. Yes, most of them don’t cost much, but even a few cents can help you economise.
Purchase Steam gift cards
You may ask me: Hey, I am going to buy games directly on Steam anyway, then why would I bother with gift cards? My answer is: you can save some money. Several marketplaces offer Steam wallet codes a little bit cheaper than their redeemable amount, plus you can use a promo code for an extra discount. That can make up to a 5% price difference.
Tip: find out everything you need to know about Steam gift cards in our detailed guide.
Set a budget
Before prices drop, ask yourself: how much are you willing to spend? Having the exact number in mind helps you not drain your bank account, unless you’re going all in with the sale. And if you decide to keep your purchases under a certain amount, stick with it.
Compare prices
Yes, sales are tempting, but you can buy plenty of games much cheaper as Steam keys. Before proceeding with your purchase, take a look at Allkeyshop, a comparison website that can help you find the best offer for your desired games. You can even install a browser extension that shows the current cheapest deal right on the Steam store page.
Find out which games can’t be bought as Steam keys
This part is important if you’re looking to buy a game exclusively on Steam. Some companies, such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision, or CD PROJEKT RED, don’t distribute Steam keys. So yes, you can in theory find their games cheaper, but they will be delivered as codes for Ubisoft Connect, Battle.net, EA, or GOG. It’s clear that Steam Sale is the best opportunity to purchase your wishlisted game on this platform.
Buy the game that interests you
The last tip is more advice based on personal experience. It happened to me to be seduced by a big discount on games that I only was slightly interested in. As a result, I built a huge backlog, and while I was digging it up, some of those games already became cheaper or turned out to be not my cup of tea. The choice is up to you, of course, but I would recommend buying a game that you really want to play, instead of chasing a good deal.
Conclusion
If you follow all recommendations listed in our Steam sale guide, you can be sure to save more money with each purchase. Small economies add up, and every 1$ saved can be used to buy a little indie game or DLC. But the most important thing is to buy only those games that you really enjoy discovering.
Do you have any other tips and tricks on how to save more during Steam sales? Share with us in the comments!
