Steam Winter sale starts next week, according to PayPal

The Steam Sale hasn't started yet, so here's a steam sail.

Update: Reddit thread creator Quantumbinman just forwarded me PayPal Japan's email, and it's entirely legit—and mirrored on a PayPal domain. It's official! The Steam sale is exactly one week away!

Original: PayPal have allegedly done it again. Still heady from leaking the start date of last month's Autumn sale, PayPal Japan has seemingly emailed a Reddit user the date of the Winter Sale. It's December 18th, based on the image linked in this here thread.

To be clear, this is unconfirmed. The PayPal early warning system has been a long-standing and reliable indicator of an imminent Steam Sale. But also, I don't get email alerts from PayPal Japan, so can't exactly verify that the screenshot snapshot is real.

Here's the thing, though: I suspect it might be. Last year, the sale landed on the 19th—the Thursday before Christmas week. This year, that day falls on the 18th. Common sense says that yes, that's probably the one.

But, there's also this: December 18th is the release date of Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, and new games aren't traditionally released during the sale period.

Should you care, only a few weeks after the Autumn Sale? Maybe. The Winter Sale is both longer and bigger, and while many of the Daily Deal discounts will be the same, more games will make it into the featured slots. And they'll probably do something weird with meta-challenges and trading cards and rare collectibles for free-to-play titles, if you're into that.

Still, if you can't wait to spend money, you can always head to either GOG or Humble, where seasonal sales are happening right now.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.