To celebrate the Steam 20th anniversary, developer Valve is handing out some lovely free Steam downloads to help spruce up your profile in the spirit of the occasion. There’s also a themed Steam sale with discounts on some of the best PC games from the history of the leading PC gaming platform, including the likes of Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, Terraria, Call of Duty, Portal, Elite Dangerous, Assassin’s Creed, and beyond.
As Steam turns 20, Valve celebrates with a message to players: “We launched Steam on September 12, 2003 with the goal of making it easier for game developers to connect with their audience and for players to find cool games. In the 20 years since then we’ve learned a ton, adding features and tools, hosting sales and events, and integrating your feedback to grow Steam into what it is today.”
In a typically light-hearted yet heartfelt video, Valve’s Kaci Aitchison adds, “We literally just want to say thank you – it’s because of all of the gamers and publishers and developers that Steam even exists and the feedback you’ve given us, and continue to give us, is how we can work to make it better.”
Ready to celebrate? First of all, you’ll want to head over to the Steam Points shop – where you can typically spend the bonus in-store currency earned from your purchases and activities on the likes of Steam profile backgrounds, animated avatars, and emotes and stickers that you can use in chat and on the forums. There, you’ll find some special free downloads to celebrate the anniversary.
Then, you can browse the Steam 20 sale page, which is more of a walk through the history of Steam, with reminiscing from Valve on each year of the platform, some of the major games that came out in that year, and other notable additions such as the Steam Awards, Steam refunds, and Steam Next Fest. There are quite a few discounts among the highlighted games, too, so be sure to check it out.
What better way to celebrate than by checking out the best free Steam games you can play right now? There are some incredible offerings on the platform that won’t cost you a thing. You can also look towards the biggest and best upcoming games for 2023 and beyond to see what you’ll be playing next.