Instantly access to your favorite games on Steam, with thousands of games, exclusive deals, automatic game updates and other great perks. With Steam you can also join the Steam Community of PC gamers, join game groups, form clans, chat in-game and more.

Name a few great free games available on Steam...

We have two dedicated articles highlighting great titles available for free on Steam, but to name a few popular ones: Counter-Strike, Apex Legends, Lost Ark, PUBG, Destiny 2, War Thunder, Dota 2, Warframe, Team Fortress 2, and World of Warships.

Why is Steam so popular?

Steam was originally created by Half-Life developer Valve as a platform to update their games and distribute them digitally back in 2003. The service had a slow start, at the time facing competition from brick and mortar stores and physical game copies, but it didn't take long until it became the top digital distribution platform for PC gamers. Over the years Valve has successfully grown a platform that hosts games from most other publishers, studios, and game creators in general.

Is there anything better than Steam?

Steam remains the biggest PC gaming platform, but there are good alternatives like the Epic Games Store, GOG Galaxy, Uplay, Origin and Itch.io.

Does Steam have Fortnite?

Fortnite is developed by Epic Games, who have their own competing platform, so Fortnite is not on Steam.

Is there a monthly fee for Steam?

Absolutely not. Steam is free and the platform makes money through the sale of games and other digital content.

How do I install Steam Beta?

Opting in to the Steam Beta Client lets you use the latest features before they're released. Follow these instructions to participate in the beta:

  • With Steam running, click on "Steam" in the upper left, then choose the "Settings" menu. (Preferences on Mac)
  • On the "Account" tab under "Beta Participation" click the "Change..." button.
  • Select the "Steam Beta Update" from the drop down list and click "OK".
  • You will be prompted to restart Steam, please select the "Restart Steam" button.

Create and Share Content

Gift your friends, trade items, and even create new content for games in the Steam Workshop. Help shape the future of your favorite games.

Entertainment Anywhere

Whether you're on a PC, Mac, Linux box, mobile device, or even your television, you can enjoy the benefits of Steam. Take the fun with you.

Available on PC, Mac, and Linux

We offer a catalog of PC, Mac, and Linux games, many of which support Steam Play so you can buy once and play anywhere, and Cross-Platform Multiplayer so you can play with all your friends, no matter where they log in.

What's New

With thousands of playable demos launching on Steam every year, and millions of players trying them out (often as part of Steam Next Fest), we've noticed some trends in feedback from both developers and players about the process and functionality. We've put together an update based on that feedback.

As a reminder, you can always find great demos to play on the Steam demo hub.

Demos now behave better in the Steam library

We've made a few updates to how demos appear and behave within the Steam Library. Here are the key items:

  • You can add demos to your library without having to immediately install them. Just click on the new "add to library" button next to demos you may not be ready to install (while using the mobile app, for instance).
  • Demos can be installed even if you already own the full game. Primarily, this will make it easier for developers to test demos, but it will also help players more easily manage installing/uninstalling demos.
  • Demos can be explicitly removed from an account by right-clicking > manage > remove from account.
  • When a demo is uninstalled, it will automatically get removed from your library.

Demos can now have a separate store page

By default, free demos appear as a button on the full game's store page. But, developers have been asking for a way to enable a full store page to better describe the contents of the demo, add separate screenshots, upload a trailer, and specify supported features. So, that is now possible and you'll find that clicking on a demo sometimes loads a full demo store page while other times will take you to the full game's page with a button to install the demo.

Tight connection with the full game

Stand-alone demo store pages will automatically display both the demo install button as well as a widget linking back to the full game for players interested in wishlisting or purchasing the full game.

User reviews for demos

If developers have chosen to enable a store page for their demo, it will also be possible for players of the demo to post user reviews for the demo. These reviews and review score will appear on the demo store page just like reviews for any other free game on Steam. Note that if the developer has chosen to not have a separate store page for their demo, then user reviews will not be enabled for that demo.

Demos now appear more in the Steam store

Wishlist notifications when demos become available

We've now also made it so that when a demo becomes available for the first time for a game that you have on your Steam wishlist, or from a developer you follow, Steam can send you an email and mobile notification about that demo.

You can opt in or out of these emails by updating your email preferences.

Steam Client Final

Android

  • New version updated to 3.9.1

General

  • Fixed Screenshot shortcut hotkey binding not working when clicked in settings.

Big Picture Mode

  • Fixed in-game purchase browser not loading properly.

Linux

  • Fixed disk write failures reported in the logs when starting games with the shader manager disabled.

SteamCMD

  • Fixed output being redirected to stderr.txt.

Previous release notes

A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.

General

  • Fixed recent apps section of systray menu being offset when game icons are hidden.
  • Fixed some issues with video playback not working in client browsers.
  • Fixed support browser windows not closing when close button is clicked.
  • Fixed Steam client taking window focus when windows are re-opened after a crash recovery.
  • Fixed friends & chat buttons sometimes not working when starting in Family View.
  • Fixed user persona not displaying in title bar when starting in Family View.
  • Fixed PIN entry dialog not getting input focus when unlocking Family View.
  • Made client settings visible but generally unchangeable when Family View is active.
  • Fixed chat notification sounds sometimes playing even if friends & chat was disabled in Family View.

Overlay

  • Significantly improved in-game overlay responsiveness and fixed cases where the UI could feel stuck or run at 1fps on Windows. This bug previously occurred mostly when running a fully GPU bound game (ie, newer game + older GPU hardware). This bug also mostly only occurred with the Windows Hardware Accelerated GPU scheduling setting enabled.

Library

  • Fixed beta selection dropdown for games with very long beta names.
  • Fixed app activity feed to refresh more reliably.
  • Fixed comments sometimes getting lost on achievement unlock events in the app activity feed.
  • Demos and Playtests now show featured news at the top of their app activity feed.
  • Consolidated some filters in the library filter widget.

Friends / Chat

  • Reduced network traffic on connect and reconnect.
  • Fixed friends list getting stuck on an empty invite list after acting on the last invite.
  • Fixed "Join Chat" button not working on Steam Community Groups when viewed in the Steam Client.

Steam Input

  • Update the Steam/Guide button configurations for non-Deck gamepads to match the behavior on Deck, ex: Steam+X button to open the on-screen keyboard instead of Steam + Select, etc.
  • Allow external gamepad controllers to load the same guide button configuration they would normally load on Desktop.
  • Improved Gyro To Mouse behavior when connected over bluetooth.
  • Added the -nojoy command line option to prevent Steam from enumerating controllers for users with who are experiencing crashes.
  • Added "Universal Face Button Glyphs" toggle in controller settings.
  • Added exclusion of Gyro Activation Buttons from controller configs that don't have those buttons.
  • Fixed issue with stale bindings on Quick Settings menu when multiple controllers are plugged in.

Remote Play

  • Added a one time pairing step when streaming from a remote computer.
  • The Remote Play Together UI is always available in the Steam overlay for supported games.
  • Use ScreenCaptureKit for desktop capture on macOS 14 (Sonoma).
  • Added support for hardware video encoding on macOS 14 (Sonoma).

Big Picture Mode

  • Fixed web browsers showing blank page entries when navigating back.
  • Improve readability of the Steam/Guide button chord summary over games.
  • Fixed an issue where non-Deck controllers could get the Steam/Guide button chord summary stuck showing until the next guide button press.
  • Fixed some cases where the Guide Button/Steam button would require two presses to open the Steam menu.

macOS

  • Fixed text not rendering in some dialogs and FPS counter in-game.

Linux

  • Fixed games with file names containing spaces not exiting when forced
  • Fixed a crash when opening the overlay in some games.

VR

  • Fix for empty Steam screen in SteamVR dashboard after launching a game.
  • Improved the layout of notifications.

Steam Client Beta

The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes:

Game Recording

  • Today we've launched Steam Game Recording into Beta, a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, that works on any game on Steam. Go to the Game Recording website to learn all about it and how to try it out.

General

  • New Recording & Screenshot manager
  • Improved startup and library performance for users with large libraries.
  • Fixed collections based on friends not updating properly.

Library

  • Fixed mispositioned background glow on hover in app grids.
  • Fixed trading card hover effect

Steam Overlay

  • Improved responsiveness of overlay on Windows
  • Fixed placement of Windows IME in windowed games
  • User interface improvements to Steam IME
  • Fixed some file dialogs opening on desktop instead of in overlay

Updates on June 27:

Game Recording

  • Fixed incorrect formatting on clip cancel button in some languages.
  • Fixed spurious game recording toggle and timeline marker shortcut keys being processed in some directinput8 games.
  • Fixed recording of microphone.
  • Fixed NaN showing in media manager confirmation dialog when deleting local screenshot.
  • Fixed media manager delete button tooltip.
  • Fixed Recording and screenshots context menu opening in its own window.
  • Fixed default clip file name not being set in overlay file dialog.
  • Improved display recording UI when at smaller sizes.
  • Fixed deleting screenshots sometimes not immediately updating the Recordings and Screenshots grid.
  • Fixed multi-select screenshot upload from the Recordings and Screenshots grids sometimes showing an error after the upload completed.
  • Added support for non-latin character file paths for the game recording folder and exported clips locations.
  • (Steam Deck) If recording is disabled, display in the overlay a button explaining it is disabled with a link to enable it, rather than a nonfunctional recording toggle button.
  • (Linux) Fixed export clip dialog not allowing saving.

General

  • Fixed Control-F no longer focusing the search box in library.