Thursday, January 22nd 2026
Valve Plans 29 Steam Sales Through 2026
When gaming platforms become competitive, one effective strategy to keep gamers engaged is by offering discounts. Valve not only plans to run discounts but aims to have Steam offer discounts for a total of 212 days throughout the year. The roadmap includes 29 separate events that combine major seasonal campaigns with specialized genre festivals. While the Summer Sale will dominate the period from late June to early July, most promotions are designed to target specific gaming communities. Valve has dedicated weeks to tower defense fans, medieval strategy players, and cooking game enthusiasts, along with three Next Fests that provide early access to upcoming releases. Several spotlight events focus on particularly niche interests, indicating that the company sees more value in catering to passionate niches than in offering broad discounts to the entire user base.
However, the timeline could change, and publishers will inevitably conduct additional sales outside of Valve's official schedule. Frequent promotions do not always guarantee the lowest prices, so players still need historical data from third-party trackers to identify truly significant discounts. The constant stream of sales complicates buying habits, as more opportunities to save can diminish the urgency that once characterized Steam sales. As online gaming platforms become more competitive, with Epic Games and GOG running major promotions, Steam aims to be the leading platform by offering deals for every type of gamer year-round.
Sources:
SteamDB, via ComputerBase
However, the timeline could change, and publishers will inevitably conduct additional sales outside of Valve's official schedule. Frequent promotions do not always guarantee the lowest prices, so players still need historical data from third-party trackers to identify truly significant discounts. The constant stream of sales complicates buying habits, as more opportunities to save can diminish the urgency that once characterized Steam sales. As online gaming platforms become more competitive, with Epic Games and GOG running major promotions, Steam aims to be the leading platform by offering deals for every type of gamer year-round.
20 Comments on Valve Plans 29 Steam Sales Through 2026
You want that AC 3 from 2012? same 7,50 euro it has been for the last oh idk 5 years? and with the DLC? oh about 15 ish euro.
Yeah it it would have een 1 buck in some bin in your local cd shop 7 years ago, but these are modern times buster! get use ot it.
Course....there are other ways to get games if you dont subscribe to this nonsense, or you are like me and stopped caring about this a long time ago.
(yes I cant even be bothred to download a game, I mean what am I going to do? spend time on it playing it? urgg nah)
I wouldn’t be surprised if they double dip and release at the same time as a library sale.
Like everything else, greed has ruined them. I don't blame anyone if we start seeing a shift towards alternative methods of acquisition again.
Other places have MUCH better deals, like Fanatical or GMG
None of it makes sense anymore, I don't even pay attn to them anymoreYeah, I used Fanatical for the first time last year, and I have used GMG for many years. I also use GoG now.
E.g: Total War: Warhammer series, no “Complete ed” bundles (Base games: 60€ DLCs: 10-25€) Sales go max to 75% for base game and 50%-66% for DLC.
So even on a “deep sale” you're looking well north of 400€ for an arguably big game released in three big and many small parts. First part is 10 years old by now.
Other strategies are to repackage your game and DLC to a “Definitive ed, GOTY ed, etc.” years after release for a higher price than the base game, to replace the original release.
So on a sale get a “better” bundle price but still more compared to release (often you now get stuff you might've skipped: Soundtrack, supplementary Map, some starter cosmetic items / skins, Art book, fluff, etc.)
The last resort is limiting sales to 50% / 66% / 75%.
Sure, there are occasionally some 90-93% (new max since 2022, no more 99%), but everyone releasing on Steam knows about the sales and plans accordingly.
If you chase the real old style flash sales as a customer, you need to go to key seller sites.
Edit: @windwhirl Not really a secret, skimming keys from social media / forums all over the web via bots (Never post full keys in clear text!), botting Giveaways, buying international keys for less in different currencies via VPN and other exploits. If it is on offer for very cheap, they got it for free somewhere.
Wish games at least dopped their base price a lot and have smaller sales every now and again.
Now you just get the same tired sale price over and over and you still have to fork out more money for any DLC.
50 dollars in 2010 are basically 75 dollars today. Those old games will likely never get a price update unless the USD value tanks a lot more, or unless it's a Factorio case.