Steam Free Games Explained — Three Kinds of Free

1. Three kinds of free on Steam

1. Free to Keep — a normally paid game becomes free for a limited window. Add it to your library within that window and it is yours permanently, playable long after the window closes. The giveaway store page carries a note along the lines of "get this game during the promotion and it is yours to keep".

2. Free Weekend — a trial event, usually across a weekend, in which the full game is free to play only. It returns to full price when the window ends, but saves and achievements stay on the account, so buying it later picks up where you stopped. Free Weekends are often paired with a discount, which makes them a good way to decide before buying.

3. F2P (Free to Play) — a game designed to be free from the start. There is no condition attached to claiming it; in-app purchases are the business model instead. The idea of missing a giveaway simply does not apply to this type.

In short, the only one you have to hurry for is the Free to Keep giveaway. The home page of this site and the list below collect exactly those.

2. How to claim a giveaway (one minute)

3. How not to miss one

Unlike Epic Games, Steam giveaways have no fixed day of the week — they run on an irregular schedule. Publishers often launch one on their own just before a sequel release or a big sale, so watching a single aggregated list is far more practical than checking store pages one by one.

The home page of this site gathers giveaways from Steam and every other store on one screen, and subscribing to the RSS feed puts each new freebie in your reader as it appears. Past giveaways stay on record in the monthly archive and the calendar. To judge whether a sale price is genuinely good, check all-time lows.

4. Frequently asked questions

Other sources of free games