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.

Steam simplifies game management with features like auto-updates and cloud saves. The platform includes strong social features, user reviews, and mod support through the Steam Workshop.

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 2, Brawlhalla, Apex Legends, Warframe, PUBG, Destiny 2, War Thunder, Dota 2, Path of Exile, Team Fortress 2, and World of Warships.

These games offer high-quality multiplayer or co-op experiences without requiring any payment to start playing.

Why is Steam so popular?

Steam is popular because it offers a massive game library, frequent discounts, and reliable digital ownership where games are tied to your account. Steam was 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, but it didn't take too long until it became the top digital distribution platform for PC gamers.

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, Ubisoft Connect, Origin and Itch.io.

Does Steam have Fortnite?

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

Is Steam available for Android devices?

Yes, Steam offers an official app for Android devices. The app allows you to chat with friends, browse the store, and manage your game library. However, it's primarily for account management and does not support game installations or gameplay on Android devices.

Is there a monthly fee for Steam?

No, Steam does not require a monthly fee to use its platform. Creating a Steam account and accessing its core features are entirely free. You only pay when purchasing individual games or downloadable content (DLC).

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

A new Steam Client update has been released:

Homescreen - Big Picture Mode

  • Added a new 'Big Art Mode' option for the home screen. This can be enabled in Settings > Home.
  • Added Personal Calendar to the Recommended tab on the home screen

Screensaver - Big Picture Mode

  • Added a new screensaver feature, accessible in Settings > Customization. There are two screensavers available:
    • The default is a game art slideshow that can be configured to show artwork from recently played games and your recent in-game screenshots.
    • A retro inspired bouncing logo screensaver
  • Big Picture mode can also load custom screensavers. Similar to startup movies, they can be placed in the config\uioverrides\screensavers directory in your Steam install directory (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam or ~/.steam/root). You can use the bouncing logo screensaver (in the steamui\screensavers directory) as an example to get started.

General

  • Improved Steam Client startup performance.
  • Avoid stealing focus when the Steam main window opens, if another window was activated during startup/login.
  • Improved the text layout in achievement notifications when the name, description or both wrap across multiple lines.
  • Dialogs that appear for serious error conditions now stay above the main window.
  • On Windows, using the systray menu to exit while the Steam window is minimized will no longer flash the window visible briefly.
  • Fixed the onscreen keyboard not working the first time it is invoked on desktop.
  • Fix cases where users with older CPUs could have the client hang/crash when starting downloads for games with many identical files.
  • Fixed desktop shortcuts always using the default launch option rather than your saved option.
  • Fixed a case where library playtime could temporarily show an incorrect value.
  • Fixed a case where after server maintenance some users might fail to auto-reconnect to Steam.
  • Fixed bug where being prompted to refresh credentials more than once could trigger an immediate restart.
  • Fixed "Suspend Download Throttle" not properly updating on the downloads page.
  • Fixed the Recordings & Screenshots dialog not showing all games that have related screenshots in the game filter dropdown.
  • Fixed a crash at launch on Windows with EZFRD64.DLL installed

In-Game Overlay

  • Improved scaling of Performance Monitor FPS line graph for various text scaling settings values.
  • Fixed crash when Vulkan games recreate their swapchain.
  • Fixed frame rate hitches in D3D11 and D3D12 games when taking screenshots on Windows.
  • Fixed rendering the overlay and using other overlay related features (screenshots, game recording, etc.) in Vulkan games that create multiple windows.

Library

  • Fix hovering DLCs not working in some places.

Game Recording

  • Fixed some cases where playback would jump to an unexpected point in the timeline when reaching the end of a play session or clip.
  • Decreased performance impact of game recording for some D3D12 games on Windows.

Big Picture Mode

  • Added delaying dimming the screen or displaying the screensaver when the Steam Store, web browsers or other apps request to disable monitor sleep and screensavers while playing video.
  • Added a setting to disable the screensaver when in game.
  • Added explicit warning text to power menu confirmation dialogs when proceeding will shut down an active game.
  • Added support for keyboard glyphs in the footer when using mouse/kb to interact with Big Picture Mode.
  • Using a physical mouse to click on text input will no longer bring up the On-Screen Keyboard.
  • Improved the layout of the QAM Voice Chat tab, added a mute toggle to the volume sliders, and fixed the link from the tab to the active chat to focus the textbox when opening to the chat window.
  • Updated default artwork when an app does not have library or hero artwork.
  • Reorganized the idle timer settings when on battery and AC power.
  • The mouse is now hidden in the overlay until there's mouse movement.
  • Wifi strength and connection type are now shown in the header on Windows.
  • Fixed clicking the buttons in the footer causing the glyphs to change back to gamepad.
  • Fixed a clicking the back button in the footer not working if nothing on the page had digital navigation focus.
  • Fixed the Steam logo spinner moving during the login flow.
  • Fixed cases on Windows where guide buttons presses would go to the main BPM window instead of opening the overlay in the game.
  • Fixed cases where the main BPM window would not get focused when quitting a game.
  • Fixed some cases where the onscreen keyboard would drop presses during dual trackpad typing.
  • Fix the diacritic options menu interactions during dual trackpad typing.
  • Fixed the on-screen keyboard not popping up in non-Steam games after toggling wifi or suspending the machine.
  • Fixed issues with trackpad typing if the trackpad is touched while the onscreen keyboard is opening.

Steam Input

  • Added a new view in the configurator for Steam Input API games that lists out actions and their bindings rather than inputs to actions along with streamlined binding interface.
  • Added a new multi-binding page in the configurator for authoring button combinations that visualizes the timeline of command outputs and their settings.
  • Added support for the user-invoked On-Screen Keyboard in the desktop overlay.
  • Added information about which configurations are compatible in the configurator browser when using a game that requires Steam Input API.
  • Added the missing settings for adjusting emulated joystick adaptive centering on trackpad.
  • Added support for inverting button chord bindings.
  • Added support for switching into Lizard mode on the new Steam Controller when interacting with UAC windows or other places where Windows blocks Steam Input.
  • Added a landing page to the configurator when no file on disk could be loaded and give you the option to select a new configuration. This was one of the causes of a blank configurator.
  • Implemented a version of the "Reorder Controller" dialog for Steam Input API games. Note - this disconnects the controllers temporarily so older games which do not handle hot plugging properly can lose controller input.
  • Improved the display of cloud sync status in the configurator and give you the option to skip and proceed to the configurator. This was another common cause of a blank configuration because the layout was broken and the info offscreen.
  • Improved CPU performance at runtime and in configuration loading.
  • Improved the consistency of trackpad sensitivity between Steam Deck and Steam Controller.
  • In the desktop UI overlay the desktop config will now be applied. For most gamepads this will not be a difference in behavior because they have a blank desktop config, but Steam Controllers or devices that have setup a custom desktop config will have mouse input to click on things in the overlay.
  • On Linux switch to reshuffling gamepad input when the last running game exits instead of on game launch to avoid issues when running multiple apps at the same time.
  • By default, Steam Frame controllers will now use gamepad input in VR games that don't support VR inputs. The preferred mode can be changed for any VR game in either the game's Steam Input settings or in VR Controller settings on the Now Playing page. Please report any titles that do not work out of the box.
  • Fixed pairing the 2015 Steam Controller.
  • FIxed glyphs for Switch controllers in Heavy Rain.
  • Fix a bug on the Linux "Reorder controller" screen on Linux where sometimes swapping controllers would not work.
  • Fixed issues with button and slider sizing in the configurator when opened in the desktop overlay.
  • Fixed Windows handheld controllers having priority over docked controllers in Steam Input API games.
  • Fixed the controller support widget showing "This game doesn't support controllers" for unreleased games that don't have controller support information yet.
  • Fixed controllers not using the desktop configuration on the desktop UI login window.
  • Fixed older-unnamed Virtual Menus showing up as "Create Virtual Menu" in some views.
  • Fixed showing doubled Xbox style controllers on Windows.
  • Fixed showing doubled Steam Controllers on macOS.
  • Fixed the glyphs shown for the Xbox Elite Controller paddle buttons.
  • Fixed cases where the Virtual menu modes could show the wrong activation type if it was created in the standalone menu vs from a controller source.

Remote Play

  • Added an experimental video codec, Pyrowave, which allows high bandwidth, low latency video streaming. You can find out more on the Steam Remote Play discussion group.
    • Added the -pyrowavestats command line option to log Pyrowave encoding performance
    • Added convars @PyrowavePSNR and @PyrowaveHeightFactor to tune the automatic bitrate calculation (see https://github.com/Themaister/pyrowave/blob/master/eval-results/objective-bitrate-evaluation.md for details)
  • Greatly improved Vulkan capture performance.
  • Improved color accuracy, clarity, and brightness.
  • Automatically fall back to H.264 if HEVC isn't available.
  • Disabled HDR when streaming to the OLED Steam Deck.
  • A PIN is no longer required to download an app to a remote device. A PIN is still required to Install and Stream from a remote device.
  • Added a Download Complete notification for a remote download if you initiated the download on your current device.
  • Fixed EULA acceptance when starting a Remote Stream.
  • Fixed streaming launch failing if the host client had a cloud conflict.
  • Added a dialog to recover if your network isn't able to handle current streaming settings.

Linux

  • The "Select compatibility tool" dropdown is now always visible.
    • The recommended compatibility tool, or steam runtime for native games, now shows at the top of the list as the "Default" option.
    • Compatibility tool aliases, e.g. "Proton Stable", can now be selected from this dropdown.
  • Windows binaries registered as non-steam games will now run in Proton by default.
  • Fixed a case where non-steam games would fail to launch after changing the Target binary via the Browse button.
  • The SteamOS compatibility dialogs will now show in desktopUI when installing games not verified for that HW.
  • On Desktop Linux we will now show the SteamOS unsupported dialog when installing games that are known to not work with Proton.
  • Improve download speeds on high latency connections.
  • Improve distro information collection for hardware survey, preferring data from /etc/os-release.
  • Fixed an issue where virtual gamepads were torn down temporarily when a game called the ISteamUtils::SetGameLauncherMode api, which could cause titles that don't support controller hotplugging to lose input.
  • Fixed a case where the 'Stop' button would fail to close the game if it was launched by an external tool.

Steam Controller Firmware

  • Added a 2nd BLE pairing slot - to pair hold L1 + B + Steam when powering on the controller. To switch between slots hold either L1 + B + Steam at start up or R1 + B + Steam at start up.
  • Improved rumble emulation and added configurable intensity levels.
  • Improve the time needed to fully connect the device in Steam.
  • Fixed an issue where some Bluetooth BLE connections could disconnect repeatedly, especially on Steam Deck.
  • Fixed an issue where pairing via a puck connection could fail.
  • Fixed an issue where switching to BLE mode would stick, even if the host device could not be found.
  • Fixed an issue where certain thumbsticks could lose the ability to reach full range.