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

  • Android version updated 3.10.1

General

  • Fixed installed DLC not being recognized by some games.
  • Fixed Steam client window not setting maximized state correctly at startup.
  • Disable spellcheck suggestions for CD-Key input fields.
  • Increase timeout before Steam will consider a steamwebhelper process unresponsive to reduce spurious failures when launch time is longer than expected.


macOS

  • Fixed crash initializing the Steam Overlay in some games when using Parallels.

Previous release notes

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

General

  • Fixed an issue where changes to notes could be lost when offline.
  • Fixed an issue where only newly taken screenshots would appear in the screenshot list until client restart.
  • Fixed game install dialog showing behind main client window when in small mode.
  • Fixed refresh logon dialog sometimes showing behind main window when you need to provide your password and re-logon.

Windows

  • Improved window snapping behavior to make it easier to pull windows off of edges once snapped.
  • Fixed some cases in-game overlay would scale to a prior splash window size rather than game window size (will fix overlay in Avowed for some users).

Steam Cloud

  • Fixed a condition which could cause Steam to launch a game before all files have been synchronized.

Steam Input

  • Fixed a rare crash when multiple XInput DLLs are loaded by a game.

Previous release notes

This update was rereleased on April 1st to fix a display issue on game details page for games with queued updates.

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

General

  • Fixed brief layout shift of elements (one or two frames) when navigating back to the library section.
  • Fixed Steam Client window focusing multiple times on startup.
  • Fixed Update News window being covered by Steam Client window at startup.
  • Fixed notifications displaying in wrong position in some games.
  • Fixed some instances where windows fail to render after display events.
  • Fixed game content switching from private beta to default branch in some cases
  • Fixed child accounts in a family getting additional playtime after switching to offline mode.
  • Fixed in-game friends sometimes not showing up in the "Friends Who Play" section of the game details page.
  • Improved accuracy of download progress and time estimates. Accuracy will improve over the course of more downloads.
  • Improved consistency and clarity of download/install/update UI:
  • Byte counts, when displayed, refer to the number of bytes to download.
  • Progress bars and percentages, when displayed, refer to the total progress of the install/update, which includes work before, after, and during the download. The exception is the top (blue) progress bar on the downloads page, which shows the bytes downloaded.
  • Time remaining estimates refer to the total progress of the install/update. These estimates will be very rough at first but will become more accurate as Steam learns more about the performance of the user's network and disks.

Big Picture

  • Fixed issue that could allow the keyboard to cover the target text area when summoned from a game.

macOS

  • Added Steam Overlay support for games using HDR rendering.

Linux

  • Improved the download speed of Steam client updates.
  • No longer applying compatibility tool filtering to shortcuts.
  • Fixed a rare issue where non-steam Protons could get assigned an incorrect compatibility tool.
  • Fixed initial positioning of dropdown menus.

Remote Play

  • Fixed controller input when streaming S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2
  • Fixed sending a Remote Play Together invite from a VR game streaming to a headset

Steam Input

  • Fixed crash when using DualSense controllers, related to gyro timestamp calculation.
  • Fixed adaptive trigger effects with the DualSense Edge controller