View source for Steam

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{{distinguish|env_steam|desc1=the entity for the in-game steam effect}}

{{Infobox game
| title			= Steam
| image			= Logo-Steam-white.png
|The Steam logo
| developer		= Valve Corporation
| publisher		= Valve Corporation
| releasedates	= September 12, 2003
| platform		= Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
| sysreq		= 
| website		= {{steam store|/|2=Store page}}<br>{{steam community|/|2=Steam Community}}
}}

[[File:SteamApplicationScreenshot.png|thumb|right|Screenshot of '''Steam application''' (also referred as '''Steam Client''') in Store tab (as of October 2025)]]

[[File:SteamMobileScreenshot.png|thumb|right|Screenshot of '''Steam mobile app''' (as of October 2025)]]

[[File:SteamGreenlightScreenshot.jpg|thumb|right|Screenshot of Steam homepage (circa 2012)]]

{{steamicon|4}} 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 games & software automatically 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.

When Steam was originally launched in 2003, it only offered Valve games, and third-party 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.

== History and updates ==
In the early 2000s, Valve was looking for a way to update its published games. Games at the time are distributed physically (via CD and later DVDs) at retail stores, and are not automatically updated, leaving players having to visit the game developer(s)/publisher(s) website in order to download the latest patches for the game.

'''Steam''' was announced at [[WP:Game Developers Conference|GDC]] 2002, and a beta version of the client was later released that day, on March 22, 2002. At the time when Steam Beta was released, it also had Tracker, which allows you to find servers, add friends and chat with friends. Tracker also has a desktop interface and in-game overlay. This later become the "Friends" feature which are located on the game menu ([[GoldSrc]] and [[Source]]) or the Steam client, and some of the Tracker features (like Half-Life Desktop/Tracker overlay) eventually make a return in 2007, as a Steam overlay which support more games (outside Valve titles). Aside from that, a beta version of Counter-Strike 1.4 (and Half-Life, along with other GoldSrc games) was also released.

Steam was later released out of beta on September 12, 2003, Counter-Strike 1.6 was also released, along with all other GoldSrc games updated to rely on Steam, instead of WON (World Opponent Network). WON was eventually later shut down in 2004. At launch, Steam servers starts to become overloaded as many people attempted to play the Steam version of Counter-Strike (1.6). When [[Counter-Strike: Source]] and [[Half-Life 2]] was released in October and November 2004, it was the first Valve game requiring Steam (for retail copies) to be installed in order to play. As many players trying to play Half-Life 2 at launch, the Steam servers was once again overloaded and slowed down significantly or crashed, leaving some users unable to play the game.

In 2005, third-party developers were contracted to release games on Steam, such as [[WP:Rag Doll Kung Fu|Rag Doll Kung Fu]] and [[WP:Darwinia|Darwinia]]. Steam added PayPal as a payment option on 22 November 2006.

[[Steam Community]], in-game overlay (Steam Overlay) and Achievements support was added in August 6, 2007 (public beta), with the release of '''The Steam Community Update'''. This update later rolled out on September 13, 2007. Around that time, Steam support for Windows 98 and ME was dropped, and both '''GoldSrc''' and '''Source''' games are updated (on the [[Source/Engine_versions#3188|same day]]) to remove the "Friends" menu option in favor of Steam Overlay.

Steam added macOS support in May 12, 2010, '''Source''' engine games such as '''Half-Life 2''' and Portal were ported to the platform.

[[Steam Workshop]] was launched in October 14, 2011. Steam Workshop is a place where anyone can upload content to Steam Workshop, and subscribe to download the custom content for a game. Users can vote the content to increase the star ratings. It is also used for hosting items (non-downloadable content) for games like [[Team Fortress 2]] and [[Counter-Strike 2]].

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, with all [[Orange Box (engine branch)#Multiplayer|Source Multiplayer]] games (such as '''Team Fortress 2''') updated to support Linux. Around that same year, Steam dropped support for Windows 2000, and games were being transferred from the old content delivery system, referred internally as [[Steam2]], to the new [[SteamPipe]] system around this time, which allow developers to [http://garry.tv/2012/08/16/approved-updates/ 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. All Valve [[Orange Box (engine branch)#2009|Source 2009]], '''Source Multiplayer''' and remaining [[Source 2004]] and [[Source 2006]] titles are updated to [[Source 2013]] on March to May 2013.

{{steamos}} [[SteamOS]] was launched in 2015, SteamOS is a Linux-based distribution, that ships with Steam client preinstalled, and launches in Big Picture mode by default. The [[Steam Machine]] launched on same year in November, shipped with SteamOS as it's operating systems. Since 2022, the latest version, SteamOS 3.0, is only available on [[Steam Deck]] and later Lenovo Legion Go S. SteamOS 3.0 is planned to be made available for the upcoming 2nd generation of Steam Machine and [[Steam Frame]] in 2026.

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

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

[[Steam Skins|Custom Steam skins]] are no longer supported on June 15, 2023 as the entire [[VGUI]] has been replaced by [[Chromium Embedded Framework|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 [https://archive.org/details/steam-09182024-beta-build 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).

In June 12, 2025, a native Apple Silicon (ARM) version of Steam for macOS has been released as a beta, as Apple is planning to limit Rosetta 2 support to unmaintained Intel-based games.

In November 25, 2025, Steam client has been ported to 64-bit on Windows platform, support for 32-bit Windows (which includes Windows 10 32-bit), has been dropped in January 2026. This update was later rolled out publicly in December 19, 2025. The only Steam process which are still 32-bit is <code>steamservice.exe</code> (Steam Client Service).

== Features ==
=== Steam Chat ===
{{Main|Steam/Steam Chat}}

'''Steam Chat''' (formerly '''Friends''') is a instant messaging feature on Steam, which allows players to chat with friends, create groups, and using voice chat.

=== Steam Input API ===
'''Steam Input API''' (previously known as '''Steam Controller API'''), allows the player to control a game using any third-party controllers (or non-Xbox controllers) such as the DualShock 4, DualSense (PS5), Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and more. With Steam Input API, games will automatically support new input devices and methods without any additional development time required by the game developers when Steam adds support for these devices. All buttons are customizable on the Steam client itself.

Additionally, Steam Input also provide a wrapper to add support for non-Xbox controller on older games that uses XInput/DirectInput (example: '''Source 2009''' or earlier), or emulate as keyboard & mouse to controlling games that does not have controller support.

==== List of Games with Steam Input API ====
This is the list of '''GoldSrc''', '''Source''' and [[Source 2]] games that support Steam Input API:
; Valve
* {{adj|2}}
* {{cs2|2}}
* {{dota2|2}}
* {{deadlock|2}}
* {{hl|2}} (since 25th Anniversary)
* {{hl2|2}} (since 2022)
** {{hl2ep1|2}}
** {{hl2ep2|2}}
** {{hl2lc|2}}
* {{portal|2}} (since 2022)
* {{portal2|2}}
* {{l4d|2}}
* {{l4d2|2}}
; Third-party
* {{bms|2}}
* {{Insurgency|2}}

{{Todo|Add more third-party games.}}

== Limitations/Bugs ==
{{important|It's almost impossible to get older versions of the games without piracy, using Steam [[Developer console|Developer Console]] to download depots or using retail versions of those games. This makes preservation of [[.dem]] files and Workshop Items, or playing mods which require specific versions of a game/software, almost impossible just with '''Steam'''. However, there are some cases which the developers (like Valve), may release a beta branch that allows you to downgrade to older versions of the game.}}

{{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 ==
* [https://store.steampowered.com/charts/ Steam Charts - Player Stats, Top Sellers, Most Played Games]
* [https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey Steam Hardware & Software Survey]
* [https://store.steampowered.com/stats/content/ Content Server Status]
* [https://store.steampowered.com/stats/support Customer Support Status]
* [https://steamstat.us/ Unofficial Steam Status] (by [https://steamdb.info SteamDB])

For more information on Steam and how to get it, visit the official [http://store.steampowered.com/about About page of Steam]. To launch Steam, {{steam|open/main|click here}}.

== Install scripts ==
{{todo|How to find, create, debug them?}}

== Games, mods, DLCs and Workshop items ==
{{todo|How are they compared?}}

== System Requirements ==
{{Expand|title=Windows|startcollapsed=0|noborder=1|
{{Sysreq
| OSfamily = Windows

| minOS		= Windows 10
| minCPU	= Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set, 64-bit required
| minRAM	= 2 GB (Win10)</br> 4 GB+ (Win11)
| minHD		= 1 GB*
| minGPU	= Any supported, DirectX 9 or later
| minother	=

| recOS		= Windows 11
| recCPU	= Any dual-core CPUs, with SSE 4.2 instruction set
| recRAM	= 4 GB+ (or depends on how many games/software that has been installed)
| recHD		= Depends on games/software that has been installed
| recGPU	= DirectX 12 compatible
| recother	= As Steam client itself, along with store, community pages are rendered using [[Chromium Embedded Framework]], having 4GB RAM or higher is strongly recommended for optimal performance.
}}
}}
{{Expand|title=macOS|noborder=1|
{{Sysreq
| OSfamily	= macOS

| minOS		= {{osx|1|nt=macOS|linkto=OS X|ver=Monterey}} (12)
| minCPU	= (Intel x86_64) Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set<br>(Apple Silicon) Fully supported
| minRAM	= 2-4 GB+<!-- Modern Steam works like a web app so bumped up the RAM requirements.-->
| minHD		= 4 GB
| minGPU	= Any supported
| minother	= 

| recOS		= Latest version of macOS
| recCPU	= Any dual-core CPUs
| recRAM	= 8 GB+
| recHD		= Depends on games/software that has been installed
| recGPU	= N/A
}}}}
{{Expand|title=Linux|noborder=1|
{{Sysreq
| OSfamily	= Linux

| minOS		= Depends on Linux distros
| minCPU	= Any with 1GHz or faster and SSE3 instruction set
| minRAM	= 2 GB
| minHD		= 1 GB*
| minGPU	= Any supported
| minother	= 

| recOS		= 
| recCPU	= Any dual-core CPUs
| recRAM	= 4 GB+ (Win11)
| recHD		= {{blank}}
| recGPU	= {{blank}}
| recother	= As Steam client itself, along with store, community pages are rendered using [[Chromium Embedded Framework]], having 4GB RAM or higher is strongly recommended for optimal performance.
}}
}}

{{Warning|
* Support for 32-bit version of Windows was dropped in '''Jan 1, 2026'''.
* Support for Windows 7, Windows 8 and 8.1 was dropped in '''Jan 1, 2024''', and no longer receives updates as of Nov 5, 2024.
* Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista and earlier was dropped in '''Jan 1, 2019'''.
* Support for both 32-bit Mac games, macOS 10.15 (Catalina) and 10.14 (Mojave) or earlier has been dropped.
* Steam may continue to function on unsupported operating systems, but some features or functionality, and eventually Steam itself may stop working.
* Games (both new and old) shipped with newer versions of Steam API (<code>steam_api.dll</code>), even if the game originally support older versions of Windows, Mac or Linux OS, may not run, or have it's functionality limited (like achievements not available) with older versions of Steam on unsupported operating systems.
}}

{{Expand|title=[[wp:ChromeOS|Chrome OS]] (Chromebook) |noborder=1|
{{Sysreq
| OSfamily	= ChromeOS

| minOS		= N/A
| minCPU	= At least an Intel i3 or Ryzen 3 CPU
| minRAM	= 8GB+ RAM
| minHD		= 128GB
| minGPU	= 

| recOS		= 
| recCPU	= 
| recRAM	= 
| recHD		= 
| recGPU	= 
}}

* See [https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/14220699 Chromebook Help Center] for list of supported devices.

{{Warning|The Steam for Chromebook beta program has concluded on January 1st, 2026. After this date, games installed as part of the Beta will no longer be available to play on your device.}}
}}

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

== See also ==
* [[SteamCMD]]
* [[SteamPipe]]
* Steam Hardware:
** [[Steam Deck]]
** [[Steam Frame]]
** [[Steam Machine]]
* [[:Category:Steam]]

== External links ==
* [http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam Store Homepage]
* [http://store.steampowered.com/about About page (Download Steam)]
* [http://steamcommunity.com/ Steam Community Homepage]
* [http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/ Steam Community Discussions]

[[Category:Valve]]
[[Category:Steam]]