Discounting (Steamworks Documentation)

Steamworks Documentation

Discounting

Steamworks Documentation > Sales and Marketing > Discounting

Overview

Discounting can be a valuable tool to help grow your audience and extend the life of your product on Steam. You can participate in official sales events and take advantage of discounting tools to run your own custom discounts.

In general, we've found that there is a customer at every price point, and an effective discounting strategy can contribute to overall long term success on Steam.

As always, this advice is generalized for a huge variety of products, developers, and customers, so take your own product and community into account when making decisions.

Configuring Discounts

Required Permissions

Discounting requires the "Manage Pricing & Discounts" permission for the relevant product. In addition, you must be a member of the Steamworks partner that is getting paid for the product you are trying to discount.

How to Configure

Navigate to the new discounting dashboard here: https://partner.steamgames.com/promotion/discounts/dashboard/ (or select "Apps & Packages -> Discount Management")
On this page you will see a grid of the games you have pricing permission for and all upcoming sales that your games can participate in.
Simply enter a valid discount for each package and event as desired and click the 'save' button at the bottom of the page.

How to Edit a Discount

Discounts can be edited up until the discount itself has started. You can do so by visiting the same dashboard URL as you used to create the discount and simply change the discount % you wish to set.

How to Delete a Discount

Discount can be deleted up until the discount itself has started. You can delete a discount by visiting your discounting dashboard and entering the number 0 for the discount percentage. Click 'save' the same way you would when entering a discount and you will have removed that discount.

Types of Discounts

Self-Serve

Partners are able to create and manage the following discounts on their own. Any discount set to 20% or greater will automatically trigger email notifications to players with your game on their wishlist. Discounted titles are eligible to appear in various 'specials' sections throughout Steam, based on your game's tags, popularity of your game, and to users that it is recommended.

Launch Discount

Weeklong Deals

Custom Discounts

Themed Sales

Learn more here.

Seasonal Sales

Learn more here.

Curated

The following discount types are created and managed by Valve. When selecting products to fill these front-page promotional slots, we consider games of all price points and genres. While there aren't exact rules, as a base guideline we tend to focus on the most-played or best-selling games on Steam. If your title qualifies for an upcoming curated slot, we will contact you with details. These promotional slots aren't negotiated for or sold, they're just built around player data. If your game has lots of happy customers and you'd like to discuss promotion options, feel free to contact us any time.

There are three main types of curated promo slots for products. The default discount length for all three promo slots is one week, but we're happy to be flexible with shorter or longer discounts, within our existing discount policies.

Daily Deal

Learn more here.

Midweek Deal

here

Weekend Deal

here

Visual Example of Curated Deals

Free Weekends

Learn more here.

Discounting Rules

When planning discounts, there are several Steam-wide discounting rules to keep in mind. They are as follows:

30-Day Discount Cooldowns

any

A Launch Discount is an optional introductory offer which allows a product to be on discount at its release, either its Early Access release or its full v1.0 Release (or both if they are at least 30 days apart). Launch Discounts can only be set up prior to the product's release date, not after. Once a launch discount ends, the product cannot run any other discounts for 30 days.
A Seasonal Sale is a big Steam-wide sales event, such as the Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring sales. Unlike other discounts, these do not have 30-day discount cooldowns, and they're exempt from the 30-day discount cooldown of other non-launch discounts.
- This means you can schedule your own non-launch discount within 30 days of a Seasonal Sale - either before or after - and still join the Seasonal Sale. Product releases and launch discounts do not get this exception.
- These exceptions only apply to the discount events created specifically for the Seasonal Sales, which appear in the Discount Management Dashboard ahead of each sale. If you set up your own discount event around the same time as a Seasonal Sale, it wont get these exceptions.
- See Seasonal Sales for details and event timing.

Discounts & Changes to Base Pricing

any

Pricing

Discount Thresholds & Durations

It's not possible to discount a product by more than 95% or less than 10%. Launch discounts in particular cannot exceed 40%.
it's not possible to create a discount for a product that would result in the price in any currency falling below Steam's Minimum Price Thresholds.
Discounts cannot last longer than 14 days, or run for shorter than 1 day. Launch discounts in particular cannot run shorter than 7 days or last longer than 14 days.
If your product is included in any bundles, the bundle discount will be applied on top of any individual discount on bundled product(s). See Bundles for details.
Any discount set to 20% or greater will automatically trigger email notifications to players who've wishlisted your game and have their account settings opted in to receive Steamworks communications via email.

Summary of the Above Rules:

Price Move	Triggers a 30-day discount cooldown?	Are Steam-wide seasonal sales exempt from this cooldown?	Notes
Price Decrease	No	-	Not possible during active discounts Subject to minimum price thresholds
Price Increase	Yes	No	Not possible during active discounts Not possible within 30-days of product release
Product Release	Yes	No	-
Launch Discount	Yes	No	Discount: min 10% / max 40% Duration: min 7-day / max 14-day
Standard Discount (Post Launch)	Yes	Yes	Discount: min 10% / max 95% Duration: min 1-day / max 14-day
Seasonal Sale Discount	No	-	See Seasonal Sales for timing

Discounting Best Practices

Stairstep your discounts

Time discounts to content updates

Take your sales decay curve into account

Discount all associated packages (DLC, Deluxe Editions) at the same time

Note: Discount Stacking
Please note that bundle discounts stack on top of any individual bundle component discounts that are occurring.

Discounting Examples

Here are some common examples of the above discounting rules in action. For these examples, we'll use an imaginary fishing game called Bass Aint Bitin' 2 and follow it throughout its first year of Early Access to its v1.0 Release. These examples aren't meant to be prescriptive; partners are encouraged to find and hone their own discounting and pricing strategies within the guidelines outlined above. Rather these examples are meant to illustrate how the various discounting rules fit together and interact with each other, and how these interactions will need to be accounted for when planning out your discounts.

Example 1: Early Access Release

If Bass Aint Biting 2 wanted to run a 14-day launch discount instead instead of a 7-day launch discount, it could do that, but then it wouldn't be able to join the Steam-wide Winter Sale discount event on December 17. Remember, Seasonal Sales are only exempt from normal (non-launch) discount cooldowns.

Example 2: Joining Multiple Featuring Events with One Discount

Suppose in this scenario that the Summer Sale was beginning on June 27. Bass Aint Bitin' 2 could also join the Summer Sale discount event if it wanted to, because the Summer Sale is exempt from the 30-day cooldown created by custom discount events.
Uh oh! What if the Fishing Fest were to be suddenly rescheduled to June 1-4. In this case, Bass Aint Bitin' would need to choose between being on discount for the Fishing Fest or for the Publisher Sale. It can't do both, since the two featuring events would be more than 14-days apart and 14 days is the maximum duration for a custom discount. However, regardless of which one it chooses, It could still be featured in the other at its regular (non-discount) base price and it could still join the Summer Sale discount event on June 27.

Note: A lesser known aspect of the Store is that a game has a chance to be featured on any sale page, such as a Themed Fest or Publisher Sale, with any discount event, or even with no discount at all. If a game is ever featured without a discount, that's fine; it'll be featured at its regular base price. See Visibility on Steam for details.

Example 3: Price Increase at v1.0 Release

On September 1st, Bass Aint Bitin' 2 sets up a 14-day discount on its current Early Access prices. At the same time, it also announces that it intends to increase prices at the end of this sale. It's always a good idea to announce price increases ahead of time to give your community time to prepare.
This discount ends on September 14 and the game immediately raises prices in preparation for the upcoming v1.0 release. This means the 30-day discount cooldown from the custom discount overlaps with the 30-day discount cooldown form the price increase. In effect, the two 30-day discount cooldown timers run at the same time.
Then, 30-days later on October 14, both discount cooldowns end. The following day, the game releases into v1.0 on October 15 with its Launch Discount
Alternatively Bass Aint Bitin' 2 could have just as easily done its price increase 30 days after the end of the release discount, instead of 30 days before. It could have even increased prices right at V1.0 release, although this third option would have prevented it from running a release discount due to the 30-day cooldown from the price increase.
Ultimately there is no one-size-fits-all solution to discounting. It's important to manage your discounts as best fits each game's unique content, community and marketing plans. More on this in Discounting Best Practices below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How are Steam curated promotions scheduled? Can we bring ideas to Steam?
A: Scheduling promotions has typically been a conversation between you and Steam. We may come to you with ideas, and if you feel you have an idea of a unique Curated Promotion, please contact us. But you can also set up your own discounts whenever works best for you, or you can opt into the regular weekly sales.
Q: Are promotions mandatory on Steam?
A: No. We might invite you to take part in a special event or promotion, but there is nothing that you are required to participate in.
Q: How are discounts approved?
A: For Curated Promotions, Valve will come to you with an idea for your approval if we think your title is a good fit for one of these promotions.

For Self-Serve Promotions, once you set up your discount using our Discount tool, then your game will automatically go on sale at the date and time you specified.

For detailed information about best practices with discounts, see Discounting Best Practices.
Q: Can I update a discount?
A: Yes, if your discount is not yet live, then you can edit or delete it.

If you would like to adjust your Launch Discount, you can do so by going to your game's landing page and clicking the box next to the launch discount you have entered currently.

If you would like to change a discount for an upcoming weeklong sale, custom discount or Steam-wide seasonal sale, then you can simply return to your discounting dashboard and change the percentage you wish for any given discount. To remove a discount, just set the discount percentage to 0%.
Q: Can I participate in Steam-wide seasonal sale events if my product recently launched?
A: Generally, you cannot submit a discount within 30 days of release or until 30 days from when the launch discount ends, however, there are a couple options if your game "just released".
- If your game launched 30 days prior to the start of the seasonal sale and DID NOT have a launch discount, then you are welcome to join the seasonal sale and enter a discount.
- If your game launched 30 days prior and had a launch discount, then when that discount cooldown DOES prevent you from joining the seasonal sale. You could choose to join the sale already in progress after the discount cooldown for establishing your base price ends. There are always future opportunities to put your game on discount, so you shouldn't feel pressured to change your release date for the sake of a seasonal sale event.
- You can now choose your launch discount duration to be between 7 and 14 days, so if you launch close to a seasonal sale and would like to have a launch discount extend into that sale, then you could choose a max launch discount duration of 14 days. We cannot extend a launch discount longer than 14 days, so you might miss the final days of a seasonal sale.
Q: Can I run a launch discount when transitioning from Early Access to fully released?
A. You may run a launch discount and participate in the Steam-wide seasonal sales events when transitioning from Early Access to fully released, unless you have increased your product's price within the last 30 days.

For more information, please see Early Access documentation.
Q: How often can I discount my game?
A: Custom discounts must be spaced at least 30 days apart and at least 30 days after the release of your product on Steam. Custom discounts don't affect eligibility for Steam Seasonal Sales. Note that the 30-day cooldown for new releases and price increases still applies for the Steam Seasonal Sales.
Q. Will these new discount cooldowns apply to curated promotions too?
A. Yes, discount cooldowns will apply to promotions like Daily Deals, Midweek Deals, Weekend Deals, Weeklong deals, publisher weekends, and any custom discounts. Any discount applied to a game must have 30 days between the end of one discount and the beginning of the next discount. The only exceptions to this cooldown are the four seasonal seasonal sales: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
Q: Is there a limit to how deeply I can discount a game?
A: You can set a game discount up to 95% off the base price. However, the Steam store only supports a minimum unit sale of $0.49 USD or equivalent in each currency or region (see Price Minimums for a table of minimums per currency). As such, a discount on a package can only bring the discounted price down to $0.49 USD. Also, if you set prices below the suggested equivalent price in any currency or region, your discounts may be restricted by the minimum discounted price in that currency or region. If you wish to sell content below these limits, you are welcome to use the Steam Inventory service to sell items within your game.
Q: I got a "Server Error" when saving. What does that mean?
A: It may mean that you don't have permission to enter a discount for that specific game or package.
Q: I thought the cooldown was 28 days, not 30 days?
A: As of January 1, 2023, the cooldown requirement has been extended from 28 days to 30 days.