How to Master Your Steam Sales Strategy

If you have your games on Steam, a solid sales strategy is essential. The prime goal of joining a Steam sale, of course, is seeing a period of increased sales. But the gains don’t stop there.

Presence in one of Steam’s main sales can also significantly bump visibility, introducing more potential customers to your game. That can lead to increased Wishlisting from players not quite ready to spend. Wishlisters will then start receiving notifications about your game, ideally converting them into paying players.

The players that sales draw in can also increase activity and social interaction within your games’ live elements. That can re-engage lapsed players, retain existing players, extend the life of your game, and motivate positive reviews and social sharing.

All of which generates data that can be used for future sales forecasting, or to feed back into your future general and sales-specific strategy.

Steam hosts two types of major sales throughout the year. The ‘Seasonal Sales’ are the biggest:

• Spring Sale (typically March)
• Summer Sale (typically June-to-July)
• Autumn Sale (typically September-to-October)
• Winter Sale (typically December-to-January).

These are heavily promoted by Valve, and generously covered by press and influencers. They welcome all kinds of games, reaching large audiences, albeit with many more titles competing.

Then there are the ‘Fest’ sales. These are largely focused on a genre, theme, or category of games, and include new demos, new releases, updates, and streams as well as discounts, attracting a whole lot of attention to a particular type of game. Examples include Real-Time Strategy Fest, City Builder & Colony Sim Fest, the Halloween season Scream Fest, and highly specific sales such as Fishing Fest.

Steam’s own ‘Next Fest’, meanwhile, is a vast event focused on new games and demos.

While Seasonal Sales can expose you to untapped audiences, the focused Fests present much less of a discoverability challenge, bring general attention to the genres you serve, and can engage players specifically interested in very particular types of games. Here you can find all the Seasonal and Fest events coming up until January 2026.

All those options are "Self Serve" sales, which you can join and manage yourself. Other Self Serve options include Custom Discounts, which you can set-up to tie in with the likes of major updates to your game.

Additionally, Curated Steam sales – such as the Daily Deal, Midweek Deal, and Weekend Deal discounts – are arranged by Valve, and which cannot be bought or negotiated. Valve reaches out to the developers and publishers they have selected, so if you get the call, count yourself lucky.

How much you reduce your game’s standard price will depend on your needs. The greater the discount, the more sales (and even exposure) you may get, with an obvious reduction in revenue-per-paying-user. In theory, a major discount should bring in more players, meaning as much revenue in total as that seen with a minor reduction that converts less players.

More players, of course, can mean more future spending, improved retention and engagement, and more. As Valve describes it in the official Steam discounting documentation ‘there is a customer at every price point’. Different discounts will suit different audiences, so ideally, you can use distinct sales to target particular groups – and experiment with what works and what doesn’t.

Do consider and consult Valve’s rules around discounting. On the whole, for example, games must be out for 30 days before discounting – unless you opt before release to do an official Steam Self-Serve ‘Launch Discount’, which can run for seven-to-14 days, at a maximum of 40%. Interestingly, across the sales on Steam, any discount of 20% or more triggers automatic notifications to all Wishlisters. Again, give the Steam discounting documentation a thorough read as a starting point for your sales strategy.

Importantly, don’t limit your strategy to Western Steam sales. Consider that Steam’s largest audiences are reportedly in India, Brazil, and Indonesia. Other sources suggest 50% of customers set Steam’s language to Simplified Chinese. Targeting those countries means exactly the same sales strategy as for the West – but do your research, as the Seasonal sales and Fests can be hooked to very different cultural events and times of year.

Ultimately, considering sales should be central to your Steam strategy – including thinking globally. And Rokky is always here if you want to discuss maximising potential on Valve’s platform.