The Steam Summer Sale 2021 is upon us, and is providing PC gamers with a whole host of tempting deals on some of the best PC games on the market. We're seeing tons of games go on sale from triple-A blockbusters to smaller scale indie titles, many of which will surely have steep discounts.
If you've been waiting to pull the trigger on a great deal for the next big addition to your Steam library, then you're in luck. The Steam Summer Sale 2021 began on June 24, 2021 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST. It ends on July 8 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST, so there's plenty of time to make some big additions to your Steam library.
During the 2020 Steam Summer Sale, there were some games that offered up to 10-30% discounts, but what we were interested in was the really juicy discounts on some of our favorite PC games. Steam always manages to have some really deep discounts on some fairly big-name games, and we're also seeing that with the Steam Summer Sale 2021.
To help you separate the best deals from the stinkers, we've compiled a list of the very best discounts featured during the 2021 Steam Summer Sale. Browse below to find a game to suit you, ranging from triple-A smash hits to beloved indies and everything in between.
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The best Steam Summer Sale 2021 deals
How to get the best deals in the Steam Sales
Whichever way you approach a particular Steam Sale, you're guaranteed to have the chance to pick up some top gaming titles at great prices.
Finding bargains isn't too difficult, but there are a few techniques and tricks that are worth using if you want to get the most out of the sales.
- Use your Steam Wishlist: Fill it up with all the games you're interested in picking up, and you'll be alerted the moment they go on sale, and how much they've been discounted by.
- Bundles are great: Publishers often pull their titles together in sale mega-packs, ramping up the savings to even greater heights. If there's a suite of titles from a publisher like Square Enix or Activision that you've never played before, this is the best – and cheapest – way to bag them all at once. As you'd imagine, the value diminishes if you've already got a few bundled titles in your library.
- Highlighted deals are where the real savings are: The majority of the Steam store back-catalogue will get some sort of price cut, but it's the 'Highlighted' deals (the ones promoted on the Steam front splash page) that tend to be more heavily discounted. These are the ones where you may fall into impulse-buy territory. Which leads us on to our next tip...
- Only buy what you'll actually play right away: Once those 75% off signs start floating around, you're going to want to break open the piggy-bank. But the Steam Sales of yesteryear have proved that our desire for overflowing game libraries leaves us with more titles than we could ever humanly play. Save some cash, and only grab the ones you're really going to play – keep in mind that if you wait a while, the games will almost certainly get cheaper as they get older.
- Use this browser extension: Want to make sure you're getting a good deal? Use the Enhanced Steam browser extension. This gives you a historical look at the price of all Steam games, letting you see just how many pennies have been saved.
What games will be in the Steam Sales?
First off, you shouldn't expect brand-new games to get the really steep discounts that have become synonymous with the Steam sales. You may see a 5%, or even 10% discount on games that have been recent big hits, but if they're still new enough to be spinning money without needing a price cut, don't expect that to change now that the sale is here.
But, with the exception of the newer titles, pretty much the entire store receives a 25% discount, if not higher, with a select few seeing a massive 90% off the list price. While the store now highlights what Valve considers the best deals, it's worth noting that flash and community sales are no longer in the mix, so feel free to pick a title on sale when you like – its discounted price will stand for the duration of the sale.
- Or... spend no money at all on the best free games to play right now!
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