The Steam Summer Sale has begun

Steam Summer Sale 2021 — (Image credit: Valve)

The annual event we know and love as the Steam Summer Sale is now underway. As always, there are discounts on thousands of games, while the Points Shop inventory has been updated with new profile bundles featuring animated backgrounds, mini-profiles, avatars, and color schemes.

There's also something new this year: The chance to "Forge Your Fate" through a series of 14 themed micro-adventures scattered throughout the sale—sort of like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" embedded within a Steam sale. Each one you complete will get you an animated sticker, and if you collect 'em all you'll also score a new badge that will let you spiff up your user profile, earn Steam XP, and maybe—if you really stick to it—make a challenge for the "world's most expensive Steam profile." (Probably not, though.)

It's a tradition for Steam sales, especially the big ones like the summer spectacular, to get off to a rocky start as masses of people crash the gates to get a look at the deals. But now that the tumult has passed and we've had a chance to poke through the deals, we've got a list of some of the Summer Sale's best deals, including new games and, for the serious bargain hunters, some under-$5 games too. (Personal recommendation: The Final Station is down to just $4, and if you're into deeply weird retro sidescrollers, it's top-notch stuff.)

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.