Steam

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Screenshot of Steam application, with the new redesigned UI (in August 2023)

Screenshot of Steam mobile app (in August 2023)

Screenshot of Steam homepage (circa 2012)

Not to be confused with env_steam (the entity for the in-game steam effect).

Steam is Valve's distribution platform, created to kick-start the digital distribution era for games. Steam allows users to easily purchase, download, play and update games online. It also helps developers by allowing them to break out of the innovation-crushing "retail and publisher" distribution model and offering them huge improvements to their profit margins and creative freedom.

Steam client is currently available for Windows, macOS and Linux. A mobile version of Steam is also available for Android and iOS/iPadOS.

Steam makes it easy to update software just like other similar software. Steam isn't the first software to do this, but it's become popular worldwide for gaming. Users had to visit separate websites that used to have their own steps and installers.

Some software had their own auto-updates, but they were pretty different from each other... This is mostly true for Windows, as some other OSes can auto-update their packages, but are not popular outside of some IT people.

Steam added PayPal as a payment option on 22 November 2006.

Custom Steam skins are no longer supported on June 15, 2023 as the entire VGUI has been replaced by Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF).

Limitations/Bugs

Important:It's almost impossible to get older versions of the games without piracy or using retail versions of those games. This makes preservation of .dem files and Workshop Items which require specific versions of a game/software, that are impossible just with Steam.

Warning: Steamwill verify the files before launching the game after some Steam update. Users can't skip it at all. A 14.1 GB game may take up to 10-30 minutes on slower or busy PCs with some games.

Note:Downloads are compressed; many updates take 11MB to download and 716MB to patch

Warning: Steam cannot only download and install certain files that the user wants.

Steam Status & Statistics

• Steam Charts - Player Stats, Top Sellers, Most Played Games
• Steam Hardware & Software Survey
• Content Server Status
• Customer Support Status
• Unofficial Steam Status (by SteamDB)

For more information on Steam and how to get it, visit the official About page of Steam. To launch Steam, click here.

Install scripts

Todo: How to find, create, debug them?

Games, mods, DLCs and Workshop items

Todo: How are they compared?

System Requirements

Windows

Windows Minimum Recommended Operating system (OS) Windows 7 or later Windows 10 or later Processor (CPU) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set N/A System memory (RAM) 2-4GB+ 8GB+ Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) 1GB* Depends on games/software that has been installed Video card (GPU) Any supported DirectX 9 Compatible Other Windows 7 and 8/8.1 support for Steam will be dropped in Jan 1, 2024.

Mac

macOS (OS X) Minimum Recommended Operating system (OS) OS X El Capitan (10.11) macOS High Sierra (10.13) or later Processor (CPU) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set N/A System memory (RAM) 2-4GB+ 8GB+ Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) 1GB* Depends on games/software that has been installed Video card (GPU) Any supported N/A Other OS X El Capitan and macOS Sierra support for Steam will be dropped in Sep 1, 2023.

Linux

Linux Minimum Operating system (OS) Depends on Linux distros Processor (CPU) Same as Windows/Mac System memory (RAM) Same as Windows/Mac Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) Same as Windows/Mac

Warning: Support for Steam on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 will be dropped in Jan 1, 2024 and as well as macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) will be dropped in Sep 1, 2023.
Support for Windows Vista/XP and earlier has been dropped.

Note:Storage requirements would be changed over time depending on how many games/software you have installed.

See also

• SteamCMD
• SteamPipe
• Category:Steam

External links

• Steam Store Homepage
• About page (Download Steam)
• Steam Community Homepage
• Steam Community Discussions