Valve is revamping Steam's Discount & Events section to make it more "dynamic and personalized"

Valve has announced an overhaul of the Steam Discount & Events section, transitioning from a manually curated list to a more adaptive, personalized system. This change aims to enhance the discovery of games on the platform.

Previously, the Discount & Events section showcased games through selections manually scheduled by partners or Valve's team. However, by automating this process, Valve can now feature ten times the amount of games each day, leading to significant increases in store page interactions, wishlists, and purchases.

The adjustment will also introduce new tools for game developers to efficiently manage promotions and discounts.

Valve remarked, "We believe this strategy better aligns with our goals and offers a superior experience for both customers and developers."

According to Valve, relying on a manually curated calendar no longer fits well with the diverse preferences of users and the abundance of relevant deals currently available.

The company's aim is to enable developers to focus on creating attractive games and offers, rather than focusing efforts on persuading Valve to prominently feature their titles.

Implementation of this new approach is scheduled for completion by early 2027, with some developers already noticing changes.

Tim Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse, observed a shift in the Discount & Events section, where less-prominent indie games are beginning to gain visibility alongside best-sellers.

"Several acquaintances with smaller titles reported the same trend: virtually no visits increased to thousands," Bender noted. "Checking larger titles, traffic from this section saw a notable rise: one game experienced 14,000 visits last month compared to 6,000 over the previous five months, while another saw 16k, up from 35,000 during the prior period."

Bender elaborated that this development benefits all, improving recommendations for players and exposure for publishers and developers, but is particularly advantageous for smaller indie developers previously overlooked in this segment.

Earlier this year, Valve revamped the tagging system on Steam to enhance game visibility, adding 17 new categories, removing 28, and modifying several others. The goal was to help players find games that align with their interests and refine Steam's recommendation algorithms.