On this page 6 sections
If you're not in a hurry, the short answer is November, December, or late June. We tracked the Steam price of 4,090 games for a full year and noted the month each one hit its lowest price of the period. Two out of three did it in one of those three windows.
January, April, May and July were the worst months to buy. Together they account for less than 13% of yearly lows.
- of games hit their yearly low in November or December
- 50.6%
- in June, during the Summer Sale
- 15.7%
- in January, the worst month to buy
- 2.1%
The month each game was cheapest
The three peaks line up with Steam's big seasonal sales:
- The Autumn Sale, in late November, over Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
- The Winter Sale, which starts just before Christmas and runs into early January. December alone had 29% of the yearly lows.
- The Summer Sale, in late June. The second-best window of the year.
The Spring Sale in March shows up at 7.6%. It's a decent sale, but many games save their deepest cut for June or December.
How we measured
- We used Steam's US price history from November 2025 through September 2026.
- We only counted games we had tracked since early November 2025 that were discounted at least once in that time. That way a game we started following mid-year can't show up with a fake "yearly low".
- For each game we took the month its lowest price first appeared. If the game hit that price again later, the first month counts.
- Brazilian real prices give almost the same result: 21.3% in November, 29% in December, 15.6% in June.
One honest caveat: this is a single year. November 2025 was our first month of data, and the pattern can shift from year to year. Still, the three big windows stand out by a wide margin.
Discounts aren't bigger, there are just more of them
The average discount on a game on sale stayed between 49% and 58% all year. What sets the big sales apart isn't the size of the discount but how many games go on sale at once. In June, about 10,000 of the games we track started a sale, against 3,000 in January.
So a specific game can get a good deal in a slow month, but the odds that the one you want is cheap are much better in those three windows.
Games that waited for the big sales
These hit their lowest Steam price of the year during one of the big sales. Each card shows today's price and recommendation:
Green Man Gaming
KinguinLikely ends in 3 days
LoadedLikely ends in 2 days
LoadedLikely ends in 2 days
SteamLowest
KinguinLikely ends in 1 day- Red Dead Redemption 2 and Crusader Kings III bottomed out in November 2025.
- Hollow Knight and Elden Ring in December.
- Cyberpunk 2077 and Hearts of Iron IV in June 2026.
What to do with this
- January to May: if it can wait, wait for the Summer Sale in June. It's the next big window.
- July to October: wait for November. The Autumn and Winter sales come back to back, less than a month apart.
- New releases: weren't counted, since we only included games we already tracked in November 2025. The calendar applies to games that have been out for a while.
- Any time of year: set a price alert on the game's page. GameValio notifies you when it reaches the price you want, so you don't have to keep checking.
FAQ
When is the best time to buy games on Steam?
Based on our data, December, then November, then late June. Half of the games we tracked hit their lowest price of the year in November or December, and another 15.7% in June.
Are Steam Black Friday deals worth it?
Yes. Steam's Autumn Sale runs over Black Friday week and accounted for 21.6% of yearly lows. The Winter Sale a month later was even better, at 29%.
What's the worst month to buy?
January. Right after the Winter Sale, only 2.1% of games hit their yearly low that month. April, May and July were also under 4%.
Are the prices on the cards current?
Yes. The cards show today's price and recommendation. The charts and percentages cover November 2025 to September 2026.
