Steam's Remaining 2026 Sales: Auto-Battler RPG Fest, Black Friday Spotlight and the Winter Sale

If you're planning your holiday game purchases, Valve's own calendar is the best place to start. Earlier this year, Valve published the full schedule of Steam sales and themed "Fests" for the second half of 2026 in a Steamworks announcement aimed at developers. Several of those events have already passed, but the most important ones for deal hunters are still ahead.

What's left on the calendar

Auto-Battler RPG Fest: November 16 – November 23 This is one of Steam's themed Fests. These events highlight a single genre with discounts and front-page promotion for participating games. If you like squad-building games where your team fights on its own, it's a good week to browse.

Black Friday spotlight: dates to be announced Valve says it plans to highlight games running Black Friday discounts by directing traffic to Steam's Special Offers hub. It hasn't published specific dates or details yet, so this isn't a traditional Steam-wide sale, but expect a concentrated wave of discounts around the holiday weekend.

Steam Winter Sale 2026: December 17 – January 4, 2027 This is the last seasonal sale of the year and usually the biggest. Seasonal sales are store-wide events, unlike the genre-focused Fests.

What already happened this fall

For context, Valve's schedule also included the Steam Autumn Sale (October 1–8), Cooking Fest (October 12–19), Steam Next Fest: October 2026 (October 19–26) and Steam Scream V Fest (October 26 – November 2). If you missed the Autumn Sale, the Winter Sale is your next chance at a store-wide event.

How to prepare

A few habits make Steam sales less overwhelming:

• Use your wishlist. Steam notifies you when wishlisted games go on sale, which is the easiest way to avoid scrolling through thousands of discounts.
• Check the end date. Steam store pages show when a discount ends. Many deals run outside the major events, too.
• Don't wait for everything. Plenty of strong discounts happen between events. Right now, for example, several well-known games are discounted until mid-November.

Discounts you can grab now

You don't have to wait for the Winter Sale. Our PC deals page lists verified discounts we checked on Steam and GOG this week, each with its exact end date, and our Free Games page tracks games you can claim and keep at no cost.

We'll update our coverage as Valve shares details about its Black Friday plans.