We’re on the eve of the most magical time of the year for PC gamers: the start of the Steam Winter Sale. Valve confirmed all the Steam sale dates for 2021 in a message to developers earlier this year, and as this post goes live we’re less than 24 hours from the start of the final savings bonanza of the year.
The Steam Winter Sale begins on December 22 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm GMT. (You can stare at a countdown over on SteamDB.) Valve’s servers usually break a bit as any new sale goes live, so expect to wait a few minutes for the deals to actually be available. The sale is scheduled to last until January 5, 2022.
If there are any unique gimmicks for this sale, they’ve yet to manifest themselves. Valve just published a new Steam Labs experiment featuring revamped store hubs, but many of those features have already been implemented in past sale pages. Last year, Valve introduced a whole new set of sale designs just ahead of the winter sale.
Keep an eye on deal trackers like IsThereAnyDeal before you decide to pick anything up, of course. Licensed third-party retailers often offer Steam keys even cheaper during these sales, and Epic’s Holiday Sale is competing with infinite $10 coupons on top of the normal discounts.
If you’re looking for the best new PC games to pick up during the event, you can follow that link.