Steam
How to publish a game on Steam
Publishing a game on Steam in plain language: the $100 Steam Direct fee, the store page, wishlists, and why getting found is the actual job.
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Guides
Grouped by who it's for
For game devs9 guides
- When should you make your Steam page?
- Steam festivals to year-end: which event is yours, and what it costs to join
- What I check on a Steam page: the checklist I work from
- Steam Playtest: what it's for, and when a demo is the better call
- Devlogs: what they actually do for your game
- Steam Next Fest: what actually happens before, during and after
- Steam capsule art: the only test that counts is your thumbnail at 231px
- Steam tags: how the algorithm actually uses them
- Your Steam store page: the page that makes your wishlists
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What publishing on Steam actually involves
There's no gatekeeper you have to impress and no application to be accepted. Steam is self-serve: pay the fee, complete the paperwork, upload a build, put together a store page, and Valve reviews it before it goes public. That's it. The barrier isn't getting on Steam — it's getting noticed once you're there, alongside the thousands of other games that did the same checklist.
What it really takes
- One fee, $100 per game. The Steam Direct fee. It's recoupable — Valve pays it back once the game earns $1,000 in revenue.
- Some paperwork. Steamworks onboarding — the legal, tax and bank details so Valve can verify you and pay you. You can sign up as an individual; a sole proprietor is fine.
- A store page. Capsule art, a trailer, at least five screenshots, a short and a long description, at least five tags, plus your system requirements and which operating systems you support. Valve reviews it before it's public.
- A build to upload. A mostly-final build, pushed up with the Steamworks SDK (the tool you upload your build to Steam with). It doesn't have to be finished — you can keep updating it through review.
- The real work: getting found. Wishlists, precise tags, supported languages. None of that is the publishing step — it's the marketing, and it's mostly free.
The Steam posts
Every guide in this cluster, newest first.
The order I'd do it in
You don't do this all at once, and the sequence matters — the store page wants to be live long before you launch.
01
Set up Steamworks
Sign up as a game developer, do the paperwork, and pay the $100 Steam Direct fee with any payment method Steam supports. One fee per game, recoupable after $1,000 in sales.
02
Build the store page
This is your conversion surface: capsule, trailer, screenshots, tags. It's what turns a visitor into a wishlist, so it's worth real time.
03
Go live as Coming Soon, early
Publish the Coming Soon page as soon as you can talk about the game. Every wishlist now is a launch-day email later.
04
Get found
Precise tags, the languages you support, and bursts of outside traffic — a festival like Steam Next Fest, a Reddit thread, a creator video.
05
Launch, then keep going
Launch day is the starting line. Major updates get their own visibility to your wishlisters and owners, so keep shipping.
The honest bit: Steam won't market your game for you. It shows your game to people based on who's buying and playing, the languages you support, and your tags — not on how hard you try. The store page, the tags, the wishlists: that's the marketing, and it's nearly all free. The $100 is the cheapest part of the whole thing.
How long it actually takes
The paperwork and the $100 are an afternoon. What you can't rush is the gap between finishing and launching, because Valve reviews your game and enforces a waiting rule.
The timing rules
- Two review checklists. One for the store page, one for the build. Valve's store-page review typically runs 3 to 5 business days, and they suggest submitting it at least 7 days before you want it live.
- A build to review. You upload a mostly-final build to the default branch. It doesn't have to be the finished game, and you can keep updating it during and after review.
- The two-week rule. Once approved, your store page has to sit as a public Coming Soon page for at least two weeks before you can release. Which is exactly why you go live early — those two weeks are two weeks of collecting wishlists.
So a realistic first-timer timeline isn't "pay and launch". It's: set up, build the page, submit for review, go live as Coming Soon, collect wishlists for a couple of weeks at minimum, then hit release when you're ready.
Common questions
How much does it cost to publish a game on Steam?
One flat fee: $100 USD per game, called the Steam Direct fee. It isn't refundable, but Valve recoups it — it comes back to you once that game has earned $1,000 in revenue. So for a game that sells, the real cost of getting onto Steam is effectively nothing.
Do I need a company to publish on Steam?
No. You can sign up as an individual — a sole proprietor is fine. Steamworks onboarding asks for identity, tax and bank details so Valve can pay you, and the Steam Direct fee is paid with any supported payment method and invoiced to the individual account that paid it. You don't need a registered company to start.
How much does Steam take from each sale?
Steam's standard cut is 30% — you keep 70% of each sale. It shrinks as a single game earns more: Steam takes 25% on that game's revenue above $10 million, and 20% above $50 million. For almost every indie, plan for a flat 30%.
How long does it take to get a game onto Steam?
The paperwork and the $100 take an afternoon. The lead time is the review plus a waiting rule: Valve's store-page review runs about 3 to 5 business days, and once your page is approved it has to be a public Coming Soon page for at least two weeks before you can release. Treat getting on Steam as the quick part and getting ready to launch as the long part.
Does Steam market my game for me?
Not really. Steam decides who to show your game to based on players and purchases, the languages you support, and your tags — not your marketing effort. It emails people who wishlist you at launch. Everything else — the store page, the tags, the wishlists — is marketing you do, and most of it is free.
What actually gets a game found on Steam?
The store page that turns a visitor into a wishlist, precise tags that put you in front of the right players, and external bursts of traffic — a festival like Steam Next Fest, a Reddit thread, a creator video. The guides on this page go through each one.
The basics