Steam Winter Sale 2026: dates and live deals
The Steam Winter Sale 2026 runs from Thursday 17 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027, starting and ending at 10:00 Pacific (18:00 UTC), according to the sale calendar Valve publishes for developers, 58 days from today. It is Steam's last seasonal sale of 2026 and its only storewide one after the Autumn Sale in October, so Black Friday on 27 November sits between the two.
Reviewed 21 October 2026 · prices update live
Popular games at half price right now
Not waiting for December: the most-played games that are at least 50% off today across Steam, GOG, Epic and the major keyshops, most popular first. (4,441 games at half price or less)
-78%Terraria
GAMIVO
-70%Cyberpunk 2077
GAMIVO
-64%Dead by Daylight
-75%Red Dead Redemption 2
Keycense
-51%The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Gameseal
-50%PAYDAY 2
GAMIVO
-80%Don't Starve Together
-74%Monster Hunter: World
-67%Project Zomboid
GAMIVO
-75%Fallout 4
Epic Game Store
-55%Hollow Knight: Silksong
-60%No Man's Sky
Eneba
-52%7 Days to Die
-50%Bloons TD 6
Epic Game Store
-75%Subnautica
-70%Deep Rock Galactic
-92%Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI
-75%The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition
GOG
-90%Hogwarts Legacy
-52%Sea of Thieves: 2026 Edition
Eneba
-60%Battlefield™ 6
Epic Game Store
-71%Hearts of Iron IV
Eneba
-72%Risk of Rain 2
-57%Ready or Not
Every current Steam discount →
Is the Steam sale price the lowest?
Often not. Key resellers sell Steam keys below Steam's own price, sale or no sale. From our own price studies:
Keyshops were cheaper than the official store on 85 of 105 popular PC games, by a median 56%.
Keyshops vs official stores →The 100 most popular paid games cost $899 at their cheapest tracked price, against $1,709 at official prices (US).
PC Game Price Index, Q3 2026 →Of 1,509 key-shop discounts we checked, 5.2% struck through a "regular" price over 1.5× the official one. Most were honest.
Fake discounts on game key sites →Before you buy in the Winter Sale
Check the all-time low, not the discount badge
A "-75%" badge is measured against the list price. Every game page here shows the lowest price we have ever recorded across every store we track, which is the number that says whether the sale price is a good one.
A keyshop key is often below the Steam sale price
Resellers sell the same Steam key, activated in the same Steam library, and on popular games they usually undercut Steam even during its sales. Check who the seller is and that the key is not locked to another region.
Some games sit the sale out
A seasonal sale is opt-in for each publisher, so not every game is in it. If a game you want is missing, its price history shows how often it goes on sale at all.
Wishlist now, decide in December
Steam emails wishlisted games when they go on sale. Comparing that price with the cheapest key on the game page here takes a minute and is the whole trick.
Every game page shows its full price history: Steam price history · games at their lowest tracked price
Questions people ask
When is the Steam Winter Sale 2026?
From Thursday 17 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027, according to the sale calendar Valve publishes for developers.
What time does the Steam Winter Sale start?
At 10:00 Pacific time on 17 December 2026, which is 18:00 UTC and 18:00 in London. It ends at the same time on 4 January 2027.
Is there a Steam sale on Black Friday 2026?
Not a storewide one. The Autumn Sale ran from 1 to 8 October 2026 and the next is the Winter Sale on 17 December, so Black Friday on 27 November falls between them. Publishers can still discount their own games that week, and keyshops run Black Friday sales of their own.
Are Steam keys cheaper than the Steam Winter Sale price?
On popular games, usually. In our study of 105 popular PC games, keyshops beat the official store on 80% of them, by a median 56%. The gap is smallest on brand-new releases, and a key is only a bargain if it is not locked to another region.
Shopping before December? Black Friday game deals 2026 →