The biggest PC gaming platform
Steam is Valve's digital distribution platform and the largest store for PC games. After installing the free Steam client and creating an account, you can buy, download and play tens of thousands of games, from big-budget releases to small independent titles.
Steam keeps your games updated automatically, saves progress to the cloud on supported titles, and tracks achievements. Social features include a friends list, chat, voice, game invites and community hubs with guides, mods via the Workshop and reviews. Regular seasonal sales offer big discounts, and Steam's refund policy lets you return games under certain playtime limits.
The client itself can feel slow at times and runs in the background by default. Most games on Steam use Steam's copy protection, so you need the client to play them. For PC gamers, Steam is essentially required software.
Pros
- Huge game library
- Frequent sales
Cons
- Client can be slow