Steam Opens Its First Black Friday Sale With A Focus On New Releases And Hardware

Steam’s first Black Friday Sale lands with a modest footprint but a clear purpose: filling the space left by the rescheduled Autumn Sale while giving players a late-November round of discounts without turning the store’s calendar into a constant churn of price drops. The move follows Valve’s decision to shift its Autumn Sale earlier in the year to avoid its old habit of running straight into the Winter Sale, a pattern that left only days between two of the platform’s biggest events. The Black Friday week now slides into that empty slot, offering a lighter lineup but aiming directly at players who expect November deals across every major storefront.

Valve’s adjustment comes after years of complaints about the compression of its sales schedule. The 2024 Autumn Sale ended on December 4, followed by the Winter Sale on December 15. It was a tight turnaround, more reminiscent of clearance cycles in conventional retail than the rhythm of digital marketplaces. Moving the Autumn Sale earlier gave Valve breathing room, and this new November offering steps in without absorbing the scale or weight of the established seasonal pillars.

The Black Friday selection is narrower, but the standout discounts fall on games that dominated the last few months. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is headlining the slate with a 60 percent cut, bringing it down to the lowest price seen on Steam. Battlefield 6 has also joined the lineup, carrying a relatively restrained discount of 15 percent, though its inclusion is notable given it launched only weeks ago and remains one of the year’s most visible releases. Dying Light: The Beast lands in the mix too, trimmed by 20 percent at a moment when its player interest remains high across co-op groups and content creators.

Arc Raiders is listed at full price, yet its presence underscores Valve’s approach: highlight a set of current hits rather than bury players in a dense grid of older catalog titles. The sale isn’t entirely focused on 2025’s blockbusters, however. FEAR — bundled with its two major expansions — enters the sale at the price of a vending-machine snack, reaffirming its perennial position as one of Steam’s most frequently resurfacing classics. Its inclusion also reflects the steady interest surrounding the recent fan patch that stabilizes the game for modern systems, something that has kept discussion alive well past its twentieth anniversary.

Hardware sits alongside the software deals, with the 256GB LCD Steam Deck receiving a 20 percent discount. The cut drops the model to $319, turning it into one of the most competitive entry points for portable PC gaming. Valve’s push to place hardware next to headline releases hints at a strategic framing: the company wants devices and games presented as part of the same ecosystem rather than as separate product lines.

What the sale doesn’t provide is equally telling. Valve has avoided layering in Points Shop bonuses or special trading cards, perhaps to prevent the event from drifting too close to the overlapping festivals that usually accompany the Winter Sale. The absence of these extras reinforces the idea that this Black Friday week acts as a measured counterpart, not a full seasonal event.

The pricing signals a broader trend that has touched nearly every digital marketplace. Late November now carries expectations shaped by traditional retail cycles, and even platforms that operate outside those patterns find themselves pulled in. Valve resisted the shift for years, maintaining its own calendar without acknowledging the Black Friday rush. This year marks a departure, but not a surrender: the sale is contained, lacking the pomp of Steam’s major events, but present enough to anchor Valve within the wider holiday landscape.

The window is brief. Steam’s first Black Friday Sale runs through December 1, closing roughly two weeks before the Winter Sale begins on December 18. The timing keeps the larger discounts intact for December while giving November a distinct offering that satisfies the annual demand for holiday reductions without collapsing Valve’s established rhythm.

Read also, Valve’s positioning of the Steam Machine emphasizes its aim to bridge the gap between a traditional desktop and a living-room console, framing the device as a compact PC-level option with the convenience of a home system.