Steam is making a big change to one of its promotional pages, opting for an algorithm-based showcase of games instead of the current "manual calendar-based approach."
Steam has been gradually moving toward personalized algorithms to recommend games for years now, and in early 2027, the Discounts & Events page, which as the name implies shows you themed sales and discounted games, is joining the club. In its announcement, Valve says the goal is to get more discounted games in front of Steam users.
"Currently, the Discounts & Events section on Steam is made up of curated placements that are either scheduled directly by partners via Steamworks, or by us here on the Steam team," Valve says. "By moving away from that approach, more discounted games or sale events will have the chance to be visible on the homepage and elsewhere on Steam, rather than be limited by a small, fixed number of slots."
Valve says it's been experimenting with Steam's discovery features for a few months now and, in testing the algorithmic model with the Discounts & Events page, was able to "show 10x more games to customers in a given day in that section.
"As a result, we saw meaningful increases in store page visits, wishlists, and cart additions."
This change potentially spells good news for discovery, but there are some concerns that it could have the opposite effect if Steam users are only being recommended sales based on what they typically interact with, which is what an algorithm does, generally. For instance, my Steam library is full of co-op horror games, RPGs, and cozy games, but there might be a first-person shooter or tactics game out there I would love if only it were recommended to me. But if Steam is recommending me sales based on an algorithm that goes off of my usual shopping and play habits, it wouldn't think to recommend me ones that sit outside my usual genres.
Regardless, "We have confidence this approach is better aligned with our goal, and results in a better experience for customers and developers," Valve says. "The constraint of a manually managed calendar doesn't make as much sense with such diverse customer tastes and so many relevant deals for customers available at any given time."
Valve says there's no "definitive date for implementing these changes" and that the fine details are still being hammered out, but going off what we know right now, it seems like the Discounts & Events page will look a little more like a social media platform next year. Of course, you can still shop around other tabs if you want a more curated list of games, and the main Featured & Recommended tab is still a mix of hand-curated picks and personalized spots, but the Discounts & Events page specifically is fully embracing the algorithm.
"We don't believe this will be perfect right away, but we are confident the new system will result in better outcomes for customers and developers and are eager to share all the details once we have them," says Valve.
