Go ahead and complain the discounts aren't as steep as they used to be, but Steam just had its biggest year ever for seasonal sales

Gabe Newell in a Valve promotional video, on a yacht.
(Image credit: Valve software)

Valve has posted its annual Steam Year in Review for 2024, which boasts that "2024 was our biggest year ever for the seasonal sales, with a 10% increase in revenue compared to 2023." The four seasonal sales are always noteworthy events, with the current Spring Sale having its own trailer, free stickers to earn by going through your discovery queue, and, oh yeah, deep discounts on various games. (Like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous for 90% off.)

2024 was also the company's biggest year for its smaller themed sales, which focus on an individual genre or niche. These have been running since 2019, when there were just six of them. This year there are going to be 18 themed sales, and you'll need Steam's 2025 upcoming events calendar to keep track of them.

Next up is the City Builder & Colony Sim Fest, which will run from March 24 to March 31. That'll be followed by the somewhat smaller pigeonhole of the Sokoban Fest, which focuses on puzzle games inspired by the classic Japanese warehouse-keeping block-pusher. Later in the year Steam will host the Zombies vs. Vampires Fest, as well as the Fishing Fest, the Political Sim Fest, and Steam Scream 4 Fest in time for Halloween.

So yeah, 2024 certainly was a big year for Steam, which crossed the 39-million-concurrent-players line in December. This year it broke 40 million, so expect to see next year's Year in Review post once again filled with good news for Gabe and co.

Steam sale datesEpic Store free gamesFree PC games2025 gamesFree Steam games

Steam sale dates: When's the next event?
Epic Store free games: What's free right now?
Free PC games: The best freebies you can grab
2025 games: This year's upcoming releases
Free Steam games: No purchase necessary

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

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