The Steam Winter Sale runs from Thursday, December 17, 2026 to Monday, January 4, 2027, according to the calendar Valve publishes for developers. It lasts almost three weeks: longer than the Summer Sale (June 24 to July 8, 2027) and much longer than the Spring Sale (March 18 to 25).
This guide collects the Steam rules that matter most when buying during a sale, taken from its refund policy and its official developer documentation.
To see how much time is left, check the Steam Winter Sale countdown.
Which games can be on sale
Steam sets discounting rules for developers so that sale prices are real:
- Discounts are based on a price that has been in place for at least 30 days. A game cannot raise its price right before a sale to fake a bigger discount: after a price increase, it has to wait 30 days before it can be discounted.
- A game cannot be discounted during its first 30 days on sale, except with a launch discount. To join the Winter Sale it must have been released at least 30 days before December 17: anything released after mid-November will almost certainly be full price.
- There must be 30 days between two discounts, with one exception: the seasonal sales (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter). A game that was discounted in early December can be discounted again on the 17th.
How not to miss a deal
Add the games you want to your wishlist. Steam sends an email when one of them is released or goes on sale, usually within a few hours. Three things to know:
- You only get these emails if your address is verified and you have not turned them off in your account preferences.
- Steam sends at most one email per game every two weeks, and during seasonal sales that window can be longer because of the volume. If a game was discounted in November, you may not get the December email.
- So on the first day of the sale, the most reliable move is to open your wishlist and sort it by discount instead of waiting for emails.
The refund almost nobody uses
The Steam refund policy lets you return almost any game, for any reason, if you request it within 14 days of purchase and have played it for less than 2 hours.
And it says something explicit about sales: it is not considered abuse to refund a game bought just before a sale in order to buy it again right away at the sale price. If you buy a game in early December and it is cheaper on the 17th, you can refund it and buy it again, as long as 14 days have not passed and you have not played 2 hours.
Other refund rules that help at this time of year:
- Gifts. A gifted game can also be refunded within 14 days and 2 hours. If the gift has already been redeemed, the person who received it must request the refund, and the money goes back to the person who bought it.
- Bundles. They are fully refunded if none of the items has been transferred and all of them together add up to less than 2 hours of use.
- Steam Wallet funds. They can be refunded within 14 days if none of them has been used. Steam Wallet cards bought outside Steam cannot be refunded.
- In-game purchases. Only guaranteed (48 hours) in Valve’s games; for others it depends on the developer, and Steam tells you at checkout.
If your payment method does not support refunds, the amount goes back to your Steam Wallet.
What currency you pay in
Steam does not charge the same way everywhere. According to its currency documentation, it charges in local currency in most large markets (US dollars, euros, pounds, Canadian and Australian dollars, Mexican pesos, Brazilian reais, and many more). In countries without local pricing, it charges in US dollars and recommends a lower regional price to developers in some groups of countries, such as several in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia. Each developer decides whether to use that regional price, so the difference varies from game to game.
Checklist for December 17
- Before: fill your wishlist and verify your email on Steam.
- If you buy something in the weeks before, do not play it for more than 2 hours until you see whether it drops on the 17th.
- On day one: sort your wishlist by discount.
- If something you bought less than 14 days ago is on sale, refund it and buy it again.
- The sale runs until January 4: there is no need to decide everything on day one, and anything you buy on the 17th can still be refunded until December 31 if you have not played it for 2 hours.