Steam

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

Steam

Developer(s)

Valve Corporation

Publisher(s)

Valve Corporation

Release date(s)

September 12, 2003

Platform(s)

Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Official website

Store page
Steam Community

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)

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.

Originally, Steam, at the time of it's releases, it only offered Valve games, or some games that use Valve IPs. This was later changed in 2005, when Steam starts to offers games from various third-party developers, whether they use Valve's engines, IPs or not.

Updates

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

Steam Community and Achievements support was added in 2007. Around that time, Windows 98 and ME support has been dropped.

Steam added macOS support in May 12, 2010.

In 2012, Steam Greenlight was launched, allowing indie and small developers to publishing games on Steam and let users vote if the game was good enough to be published on Steam Store.

Steam added Linux support in February 14, 2013. Around that same year, Steam dropped support for Windows 2000, and games were being transferred to the new SteamPipe system around this time, which allow developers to publish new game updates without requiring Valve approvals, and to make most older Source games easier to mod while keeping the original game files intact (see Source 2013).

SteamOS was launched in 2015, SteamOS is a Linux-based distribution which was preinstalled with Steam. Since 2022, it is currently being used in Steam Deck, but previous versions are available for Steam Machines and other PCs.

Steam Direct was launched in 2017, which replaced Steam Greenlight.

Steam dropped support for Windows XP and Vista in Jan 1, 2019.

Custom Steam skins are no longer supported on June 15, 2023 as the entire VGUI has been replaced by Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF).

In Jan 1, 2024, Steam no longer supports Windows 7 through 8.1, these systems later stop receiving latest Steam updates after November 2024. Latest version compatible with Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 is available here.

In February 15, 2024, Steam dropped support for macOS Mojave 10.14 or earlier. This also meant that all 32-bit games are no longer supported on all Macs after macOS Catalina (10.15).

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:Steam will 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 10 or later Processor (CPU) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set N/A System memory (RAM) 4GB+ (due to operating systems) 8GB+ (or depends on how many games/software that has been installed) Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) 1GB* Depends on games/software that has been installed Video card (GPU) Any supported Any supported Other Windows 7 and 8/8.1 are no longer supported since Jan 1, 2024, with latest Steam client no longer supporting these systems after November 2024. However these older version is still able to connect to Steam but features may eventually break or stop working. Windows 9x to Vista are also no longer supported.

Mac

macOS (OS X) Minimum Recommended Operating system (OS) OS X Catalina (10.15) Latest version of macOS Processor (CPU) (Intel x86) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set (Apple Silicon) Fully supported 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 Support for Steam on OS X Mojave (10.14) and macOS High Sierra (10.13) or earlier has been dropped, and no longer received updates after November 2024. However these older version is still able to connect to Steam but features may eventually break or stop working. Steam also dropped support for both 32-bit only Mac games and macOS 10.14 in February 15, 2024.

Linux

Linux Minimum Operating system (OS) Depends on Linux distros Processor (CPU) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set System memory (RAM) 2-4GB+ Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) 1GB* Video card (GPU) Any supported

Warning:

• Steam no longer supports Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 in Jan 1, 2024, and no longer receives updates as of Nov 5, 2024, but is still functional on these operating systems.
• Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista and earlier was dropped in Jan 1, 2019.
• Support for macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) was dropped since Sep 1, 2023.
• Support for both 32-bit Mac games and macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and 10.14 (Mojave) was dropped in February 15, 2024. Steam will continue to function on these operating systems and receive updates for these systems until October - November 2024.

ChromeOS (Chromebook)

ChromeOS (Chromebook) Minimum Operating system (OS) N/A Processor (CPU) At least an Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 CPU System memory (RAM) 8GB+ RAM Hard disk drive (HDD/SSD) 128GB See Chromebook Help Center for list of supported devices.

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