Steam’s 2026 roadmap includes 22 themed sales and year-round discounts
Valve’s PC storefront will run discounts nearly year-round.
Being part of the PC Master Race—and playing on Steam—means seasonal sales are a must for picking up long-awaited games at a discount. Now, players may want to keep their wallets ready: Steam has revealed an aggressive discount schedule for 2026, featuring deals spread across nearly the entire year.
Through a very unique video on social media, Steam announced that it will feature a total of 22 themed festivals throughout 2026. This means that every 2.4 weeks there will be some kind of discount on certain games, as long as they fit the theme. Some examples include a festival of detective games, board games, or tower defense games.
We have 22 themed Fests coming in 2026, and challenged ourselves* to find a fun way to show the variety of games we'll be celebrating on Steam throughout the year.
— Steam (@Steam) January 21, 2026
*"ourselves" = one of us, who may or may not have earned herself a permanent ban from doing videos. pic.twitter.com/9jqmfylR0Q
A large number of discounts throughout the year
These 22 festivals will be joined by Steam’s other established promotions, including Next Fest events in February, June, and October, as well as the four major seasonal sales. Altogether, Steam’s 2026 promotion calendar will span 344 days across 29 separate events.
The expanded schedule comes as Steam continues to dominate the PC market. Earlier this month, the platform surpassed 42 million concurrent users, a new all-time high. That growth hasn’t come without challenges, however. Valve recently updated its AI disclosure rules, removing the requirement for developers to declare AI tools used solely for development efficiency and instead focusing on AI-generated content that is directly “consumed by players.”
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Steam has also faced community backlash following the removal of the indie horror game Horses over content guideline violations, underscoring the ongoing tension between creative freedom and storefront moderation.
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