Your Guide to Getting Steam Games for Free (Legally) in 2025

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Legit ways to nab free Steam games, plus find giveaways & deals

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau Reviewed by Stan Kats

Last Updated: November 30, 2025 Fact Checked

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Getting Free Games

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Getting Cheap Games

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Good Free Steam Games

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Are you ready to sink your teeth into a new game on Steam, but don’t want to drop $60 on a shiny new AAA title? You’re not alone! Luckily, there are quite a few totally legitimate ways to get Steam games for free. Between Steam’s “Free to Play” category (which is full of indie titles and hidden gems), the many giveaways hosted across online gaming communities, and other clever hacks, there’s no reason you can’t score a bunch of free Steam games. Read on, and we’ll show you exactly how to do it.

Legitimate Ways to Play Steam Games for Free

Browse Steam's “Free to Play” category and monitor the SteamDB “Free Promotions” page for giveaways and deals.
Join r/FreeGameFindings and r/GameDealsFree on Reddit and SteamGifts.com.
Trade games with other users (give them a game you own, and get one of theirs).
Use reward websites like Gamesbolt and Gamehag to earn Steam keys and gift cards.

Section 1 of 3:

Legal Ways to Get Free Steam Games

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Explore Steam’s “Free to Play” category. One of the easiest ways to find free games is to check Steam's “Free to Play” page, which is linked in this article and easy to access from the main Store page on the platform. In the Store, click Browse, then select Free to Play (which is located under the “Top Destinations” category).
- The drawback here is that you won’t find many free, current AAA games—it’s mainly indie titles and free-to-play multiplayer games.
- Nonetheless, the “Free to Play” section of Steam is a great place to find underrated games and hidden gems at no cost!
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Check Steam for deals and giveaways involving free games. Outside of its “Free to Play” category, Steam also gives away game keys from time to time. Monitor Steam—including its News section and the SteamDB “Free Promotions” page—for upcoming and current events during which you can snag a free game.
- Check out the r/Steam_Giveaway Reddit community as well! Redditors in the community often gift Steam keys and gift cards to people who enter their giveaways.
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Join online communities dedicated to finding deals and freebies. Maybe you don’t have the time and energy to search the internet for free games and lightning deals—and that’s perfectly valid. That’s why joining a community dedicated to finding free games—like r/FreeGameFindings and r/GameDealsFree on Reddit—can help in a major way. All you have to do is visit each page as often as possible to see what deals are currently available!
- There’s also SteamGifts.com, which is a legitimate site where users will host their own giveaways, offering a limited number of Steam keys to those who enter.
- r/GameDeals is another great option to check for deals, although not every game listed is totally free.
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Swap a game with a fellow Steam user. If you have a game or two on your Steam account that you’re willing to give away, you can actually do a trade with another Steam user and get one of their games in return. You can always do a trade with friends and people you know with Steam accounts—but if you don’t know anyone personally, check out the r/SteamGameSwap community on Reddit.^{[1]
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- On r/SteamGameSwap, you can post a trade offer or reply to someone else’s, and if the two of you agree on a trade, you’ll be able to get your hands on a new game for free!
- To make a trade offer on Steam:
  - Go to your Steam Inventory and select Trade Offers.
  - Select New Trade Offer and the name of the Steam user you’re trading with.
  - Drag and drop the items you want to trade into the appropriate boxes.
  - Check the box to confirm the contents of the trade.
  - Click the Make Offer option.
The website Gamesbolt offers reward points for completing “quests” (like watching short videos, doing surveys and quizzes, or trying out a game, for example). When you have enough points, you can exchange them for a Steam game key. Similarly, the website Gamehag gives points (“souls”) which you can cash out for gift cards (including Steam gift cards) and free games.
Streamers—especially if they have a larger following—sometimes gift Steam keys to their viewers. Of course, it might take a while to get a freebie if you’re one in a thousand other viewers, but you still have a chance! In the same vein, you might be able to get some free Steam keys if you start a streaming channel and build up an audience for yourself.
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Try crafting Steam badges for a game reward. Sometimes making a Steam badge will earn you a free game. You can make a badge by playing games with trading cards available and collecting them all. Then, from your Steam profile page, hover over your username at the top of the screen (next to “Community”) and select Badges from the drop-down menu. Find the game for which you’ve collected all cards, and select Craft Badge.^{[2]
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- Once you make your badge, it’ll appear on your profile. You’ll get an XP boost for your profile and some cosmetic items as rewards. It’s also possible you’ll get a free game (but that isn’t guaranteed).
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Look for free games through other online retailers. Don’t just make a Steam account; if you want free games, it’s a good idea to make accounts with Epic Games, Humble Bundle, and GOG as well—all of which have giveaways periodically. In fact, Epic offers weekly giveaways (typically indie games, with a few older AAA games thrown into the mix).^{[3]
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- Epic lists which games are free at the moment, as well as games that’ll be free next week, so check their site often!
- Other platforms to check for free games include Prime Gaming, Fanatical, Ubisoft Connect, EA, and Intel Gaming Access.

Section 2 of 3:

How to Get Cheap Steam Games

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Wishlist Steam games you want to get alerts on sales. Not only does Steam host sales from time to time, but single games sometimes go on sale by themselves. If you have the games you want Wishlisted, you’ll get a notification when they go on sale—and you can take advantage of any discounts being offered. If you’re okay with getting a game at a discount (not for free), sometimes all it takes is a Wishlist and a little patience.^{[4]
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- To add a game to your Wishlist, navigate to the game’s Store page on Steam (while logged into your account) and click the blue Add to your wishlist button, located below the initial trailer or photo featured on a page.
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Check Steam’s discount page and run filtered searches. Just as Steam has a “Free to Play” category, it has a page for discounts and special events. You can also look for games that are cheap (either due to a sale or because they just don’t have a high price tag) when you run a search on Steam, making it easy to find options within your current budget.
- On the Steam store, click on the “search” box at the top of the screen and select Advanced Search. From there, use the Narrow by Price slider to search for games under a certain price.
- For instance, you could move the slider to the left and run a search for games under $5 or $10. You can also use the price slider to look for free games!
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Buy Steam games from websites like Loaded and IndieGala. Loaded (formerly CDKeys) has a lot of discounted games available, cheaper than they would be on Steam. When you buy a game, you’ll get a redeemable Steam key to use. Indiegala is very similar, selling Steam keys (and games for other platforms) at higher discounts. Additionally, IndieGala hosts giveaways in which you can win free Steam keys!
- Green Man Gaming is another discount game website worth checking out.
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Shop during Steam’s seasonal sale events. Steam notably has four major sales each year—a Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter sale. While there are plenty of smaller sales and events in between, those four sales are the most reliable, consistent times to look for heavily discounted games on the platform. So, when it’s the right time of year, be sure to check Steam’s prices!^{[5]
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- Spring sale - Usually takes place in March.
- Summer sale - Usually runs from late June to early July.
- Autumn sale - Usually runs in November, around Black Friday.
- Winter sale - Usually takes place in late December (around Christmas) to January.
- Check SteamDB’s sales page for all upcoming sales events.

Section 3 of 3:

What are some good free Steam games?

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Want some Steam titles you can check out right away, no searching or waiting required? We’ve got you covered there, too! We’ve already mentioned that Steam has lots of free-to-play games just waiting to be discovered—so check out a few of the most popular and fan-favorite titles below:
- The Finals - A free-to-play FPS (first-person shooter) that revolves around team-based matches set in dynamic, destructible environments.
- Moonring - A dark fantasy game inspired by turn-based RPGs and roguelikes, set in a retro, neon-filled open world.
- Once Human - An open-world multiplayer survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world that you, as a player, have the power to remake.
- Path of Exile - A dark fantasy action RPG in which you play as an Exile, striving to survive in a harsh world (and get some revenge in the process).
- PlanetSide 2 - A free-to-play sci-fi FPS in which players can join one of three empires (each with unique weapons and tech) and fight for supremacy.
- Tactical Nexus - A single-player puzzle RPG and strategy game inspired by Tower of the Sorcerer.
- Team Fortress 2 - An incredibly popular FPS with multiple game modes, character classes, and maps to try. It’s also one of the most highly-rated free games of all time!
- Torchlight Infinite - A multiplayer action RPG (fourth in the Torchlight series) and dungeon crawler set in a high fantasy world.
- Warframe - An action role-playing third-person shooter set in a futuristic world where warriors control powered Warframes; it has player versus environment and player versus player areas.