Steam's Golden Week Sale is live

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The surprise Steam Sale is a week-long celebration of games made in Japan.

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Steam Golden Week Sale 2021
(Image credit: Valve)

April 29 marks the beginning of Golden Week in Japan, a week containing no fewer than four Japanese holidays: Shōwa Day on April 29, Constitution Memorial Day on May 3, Greenery Day on May 4, and Children's Day on May 5. It's a pretty big week all around, and Valve is marking this year's festivities with a Golden Week Sale on Steam, featuring deals on thousands of games from Japan.

It's the kind of sale we likely wouldn't have seen on Steam not all that terribly long ago. There was a time when PC gaming didn't have a meaningful presence in Japan, and so Japanese developers and publishers simply didn't bother with it. Slowly but surely over the past decade, that situation has changed, and PC is now recognized as an important and viable platform—and as a consequence, we've got a lot of Japanese games to choose from.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

See anything else particularly good? Let us know in the comments. 

Naturally, a new sale means new Seasonal items in the Steam Points Shop "that embody the spirit of Spring in the northern hemisphere," including backgrounds, avatars, frames, and a seasonal profile.

The Golden Week Sale runs until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on May 6. For advance notice on more upcoming Steam sales (the ones that we know about, anyway), be sure to keep an eye on our list. 

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Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.