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
Steam Game Recording is now available to all users! It’s a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, which runs in the background so you never miss a moment.
There are so many ways to use this all-new set of features, from capturing your highlights to documenting entire campaigns. It’s easy to find, clip, and share your gameplay.
Thanks to our beta testers for their feedback and bug reports.
Since June we’ve added several new features:
- Game-specific settings
- Quick capture hotkey options
- Advanced export options
- And Session View – A new way to view your footage in the new Recordings & Screenshots manager with game-specific tags and data
Steam Game Recording
- Steam Game Recording is now available to all users! It’s a new built-in system for creating and sharing your gameplay footage, which runs in the background so you never miss a moment.
- There are many ways to use this all-new set of features, from capturing your highlights to documenting entire campaigns. It’s easy to find, clip, and share your gameplay.
- For more info, visit the Game Recording website.
Windows
- This version of the Steam client will no longer run on Windows 7 or Windows 8. Users on these OS versions will not automatically update to this new version of the Steam Client. See the Windows 7 and Windows 8 Support FAQ for additional details.
macOS
- This version of the Steam client will no longer run on macOS 10.13 or 10.14. Users on these OS versions will not automatically update to this new version of the Steam Client. See the Steam macOS 10.13 and 10.14 Support FAQ for additional details.
General
- Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 126.0.6478.183.
- Fixed issue where drag-and-drop of text into a chat would send the text immediately instead of dropping it into the edit area.
- Re-enabled remote install from Steam client via the streaming dropdown.
- Improved detection of other computers for streaming and peer downloading when using a secondary wireless interface.
- Fixed progress bar not updating during game update and move operations involving large files.
- Fixed overlay hanging in some games on macOS and Linux after a game restarts itself.
- Fixed the names of manually added or removed games not appearing in the collection filter header if the game had been removed from the user’s library.
- Fixed steamwebhelper deleting temp directories that it may not have previously created.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent Offline Mode login on the first restart after installing an update.
Remote Play
- Added support for AV1 video streaming on high end systems.
- Fixed the cursor being too small when streaming from a PC with desktop scaling enabled.
- Fixed using software encoding instead of hardware H.264 when HEVC is enabled and unavailable.
- Fixed black screen when streaming HEVC from Steam Deck.
Steam Overlay
- Fixed crash in some games using D3D9.
Steam Input
- Fixed crash occurring when querying community controller configurations in the configurator.
- Added support for wired XBox controllers on macOS Sequoia.
- Fixed the “Turn off Controller” action causing Steam to launch BPM if the main window was focused.
- Increased maximum sensitivity of Joystick Mouse mode.
- Mode Shifts now support D-Pad directions and Right Joystick.
- Mode Shifts now support Track Pad Touch on DualSense/Edge, DualShock, SteamController and SteamDeck.
- SIAPI Glyphs for Playstation Dualsense are now monochrome to match Icons in Big Picture Mode.
- Fixed an issue where bindings that were present from converting a configuration from one controller type to another could be active but not removable due to being filtered out of the binding interface.
- Always show the controller tab in app properties for non-Steam shortcuts.
- Added Invert X and Invert Y to Mouse Regions.
- Scroll Wheel mode can now be chosen from the dropdown in SIAPI games (Inside of Edit Loadout, not Quick Settings).
- Fixed an issue where using a Steam/QAM button chord in a non-Steam game could leave the desktop config loaded instead of the game’s config.
Linux
- Fixed some miscellaneous common crashes.
- Fixed slow startup on systems where the reverse hostname lookup for the loopback interface is not localhost.
- Detecting and passing commands to an already running Steam client is significantly faster.
- Added a -disable-screensaver-inhibit command line option to prevent Steam from inhibiting the screen saver when activity is detected.
- Fixed Linux crash launching steamwebhelper occurring with some system configurations.
- Steam developers can now select which Steam for Linux runtime to use for native titles. Please consult the partner site for more details.
- Native titles will execute in ‘Steam for Linux runtime 1.0 (scout)’ by default, instead of the legacy runtime environment.
- This behavior is consistent with Steam Deck and promotes better compatibility across all Linux desktop distributions.
- Note that this new feature can be turned off globally with “-compat-force-slr off” on the Steam client command line.
- Always allow the Steam client to fallback to X11 when SDL_VIDEODRIVER/SDL_VIDERO_DRIVER is set to wayland.
- Removed the UI toggle to disable Steam Play globally, correctly reflecting that Steam Play is always enabled on Linux. Steam Play was always partially active even when set to off in the UI as it is a requirement for Steam client operation.
- Fixed a case where the wrong DPI scaling factor would be used for systems using a non-gnome based session with an active gnome-desktop-portal service.
- Extended recent Steam Play fixes to third party compatibility tools.
Discovery Queue
- Fixed the Discovery Queue presentation so that the elements around the videos show correctly.
- Improved the animation when scrolling through the discovery queue.
Big Picture Mode
- Fixed keyboard input dialog in-game failing to close/re-open properly if Steam Overlay is toggled while visible.
- Fixed multi-line mode support in the dialog shown by the ShowGamepadTextInput API call in Steamworks.
- Fixed the on-screen keyboard not immediately popping up when games invoke the text entry dialog.
- Fixed a case where the text entry dialog could lose focus and require moving focus to the buttons and back to the text entry.
Previous release notes
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- Android version updated to 3.9.2
A new Steam client has been released and will be automatically downloaded.
General
- Fixed a rare case where the UI could get stuck showing a loading throbber at startup while in Offline Mode.
Big Picture Mode
- Fixed startup movie intermittently failing to play at launch.
Steam Input
- Fixed case where virtual menus may be left visible when mode shifting.
- Fixed Steam overlay sometimes toggling when activating on-screen keyboard from controller chord.
Steam Families
Steam Families is now available for all users. Steam Families is a collection of new and existing family-related features. It replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View, giving you a single location to manage which games your family can access and when they can play.
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Create a Steam Family
To get started, you can create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members. You can manage your family from your Steam Client, mobile device or web browser.
Family Sharing
When you join a Steam Family, you automatically gain access to the shareable games that your family members own and they will also be able to access the shareable titles in your library. The next time you log in to Steam, this new ‘family library’ will appear in the left column as a subsection of your games list. You maintain ownership of your current titles and when you purchase a new game it will still show up in your collection.
Best of all, when you are playing a game from your family library, you will create your own saved games, earn your own Steam achievements, have access to workshop files and more.
Family Sharing enables you to play games from other family members’ libraries, even if they are online playing another game. If your family library has multiple copies of a game, multiple members of the family can play that game at the same time. For a more detailed look at how Family Sharing works, see the FAQ below.
Family Sharing is a feature that developers may opt their games out of for technical or other reasons at any time. Visit the Steam Store to see a list of games that currently support Family Sharing.
Parental Controls
Steam Families includes new parental controls that allow parents to set limits on what and when children play games on Steam. You can control which games your children have access to and monitor their activity. This information is available from wherever you access Steam, including your mobile device when you are away from home.
Members of a Steam Family can have one of two roles: adult or child. Any adult family member can manage invites and apply account restrictions. Children are subject to parental controls and do not have permissions to manage the family.
Parental control features let adults:
- Allow access to appropriate games
- Restrict access to the Steam Store, Community or Friends Chat
- Set playtime limits (hourly/daily)
- View playtime reports
- Approve or deny requests from child accounts for additional playtime or feature access (temporary or permanent)
- Recover a child’s account if they lost their password
Release notes
General
- Steam Families is now available for all users. For more info about Steam Families, you can read our news post, check out our Support FAQ
- The friends list will now show a Steam Deck icon, instead of a gamepad icon, if the other user is playing on a Steam Deck
- Replaced the friends list VR icon with a new graphic that also matches the in-game or online friend state color
- Improved startup and library performance for users with large libraries
- Improved detection of Nintendo Switch Pro controller
- Improved reliability of “games in common” collections in library
- Rewrite of shortcut key binding in settings UI, including the ability to unbind a hotkey
- Fixed taking HDR screenshots on Windows
- Fixed collections based on friends not updating properly
- Fixed “Soundtracks” and “All Games” shelves on home page applying the app type filter from the top of the games list. This would lead to Soundtracks showing no items if Soundtracks was not selected at the top of the games list, as an example.
- Fixed collection names not being editable.
- Fixed formatting of links in news posts
Screenshots
- Redesigned the screenshots manager
- Added easier ways to share screenshots directly from Steam, including:
- Copy directly to your clipboard
- Send to friend or chat group via Steam chat
- Send to your phone via the Steam Mobile App
- Export as a new file on your computer
- Improved the ability to share multiple screenshots at once by multi-selecting from the grid view
- Improved the performance and reliability of the screenshots manager
- Added the ability to search within the app filter dropdown
- Pre-emptive work to provide future support for recordings and clips to integrate with the screenshots manager when Steam Game Recording releases out of beta
Steam Overlay
- Improved responsiveness of overlay on Windows
- User interface improvements to Steam IME
- New Clock app in the Steam Overlay that can optionally be pinned on top of games.
Steam Input
- Reduced latency of Steam Input API Action Set/Action Set Layer commands. If any input issues are noticed in Steam Input API games please report them in the forums
- Reduced latency of Steam Input API rumble/haptics commands
- Reduce CPU usage when using both Gyro and Joystick or Trackpad for mouse input
- Added Output Icons to all Mode/Behavior dropdown menus. These indicate if the mode (by default) generates OS Mouse output, XInput (controller) Output, Steam Input API Action Output, or is a remapping tool/Overlay Menu (Touch, Radial, Hotbar).
- Steam Input API Analog Actions that can have multiple modes i.e. “Camera | Camera as FlickStick” are now labelled as “… (via FlickStick)”
- Steam Input API Analog Actions can now optionally be used “… (via Gyro To Mouse)” (default is still “As Mouse” or “As Joystick Mouse” depending on source).
- Fixed Steam Input API issue where analog actions from other action sets incorrectly reporting as active. This affected some titles including Okami HD
- Fixed for SIAPI GetMotionData not returning any information on every controller but the first one plugged in
- Fix rare issue where Gyro Processing occurred before controller type is established.
- Fix for Track Pad as Button Behavior not displaying any glyphs.
- Fix “Gyro Calibration” Button appearing twice on Gyro config screen if there is a mode shift applied to the Gyro.
- Fixed a bug where PlayStation controllers connected over BT could be shown as connected over USB
SteamVR
- Fixed a rare crash when launching a game in VR Game Theater
- Fixed a rare crash when launching a VR game for streaming
Linux
- Improved system display scale detection to be compatible with more desktop environments.
- Fixed a crash in gldriverquery when using latest nvidia graphics card drivers
- Fixed a crash that could occur at exit while cleaning up websockets
macOS
- Fixed Disk Write Errors sometimes occurring when updating games on macOS 13+
- Fixed Steam Overlay crash in some games using Metal rendering
- Fixed some UI issues in user login
- Fixed issue preventing the hardware encoder enable setting from being honored
