Valve to Drop Steam’s Curated Deal Calendar for Personalized Picks

Valve announced in a Steamworks Development post on September 29, 2026 that it plans to move Steam’s Discounts & Events homepage section away from its manually curated calendar and toward dynamic, personalized placements in early 2027, and has paused scheduling new curated Weekend Deal, Midweek Deal, and Daily Deal slots in the meantime.

The Discounts & Events section is currently assembled from curated placements that partners schedule directly through Steamworks or that Valve’s own Steam team schedules. Valve said moving away from that approach will give more discounted games or sale events the chance to be visible on the homepage and elsewhere on Steam, rather than being limited by a small, fixed number of slots.

Months of Testing Behind the Change

Valve said its goal with Steam’s discovery features is to show the right game to the right customer, and that it spent the last few months experimenting with replacing some curated spots in the section with dynamic and personalized recommendations. The company reported that featuring games in a more personalized way let it show 10 times more games to customers in a given day in that section, and said it saw meaningful increases in store page visits, wishlists, and cart additions as a result.

Valve said the constraint of a manually managed calendar does not make as much sense when customers have such diverse tastes and so many relevant deals are available at any given time. The company said it is confident the personalized approach is better aligned with that discovery goal and produces a better experience for customers and developers.

Curated Deal Scheduling Paused

Valve has paused scheduling curated placements in the section, covering Weekend Deals, Midweek Deals, and Daily Deals, while it works toward the change. Any developer with a Weekend Deal, Midweek Deal, or Daily Deal already scheduled will have the placement honored and does not need to take any action.

Valve said the changes will also bring new and updated tools to help developers better manage their discounts and sale events on Steam. “Our goal is to let developers focus on crafting the most compelling games and deals for customers, and not spend time trying to convince someone at Valve to feature their products,” the Steamworks Development team wrote.

The Curated Slots Being Replaced

Valve’s Steamworks discounting documentation lays out the fixed homepage windows behind the three curated slot types. Daily Deals are featured on the Steam homepage for 24 hours and rotate every day at 10am Pacific, with two or more slots per day. Midweek Deals run for 72 hours, from Monday at 10am Pacific until Thursday at 10am Pacific, with up to six slots per week. Weekend Deals run for 96 hours, from Thursday at 10am Pacific until Monday at 10am Pacific, also with up to six slots per week.

The documentation states that Valve creates and manages the curated slots itself, considers games of all price points and genres, and as a base guideline tends to focus on the most-played or best-selling games on Steam. The slots are not negotiated for or sold and are built around player data. Curated placements are generally restricted to once per calendar year, with at least three months between promotions, and the default discount length for all three slot types is one week.

On the homepage carousel, Midweek and Weekend spotlights occupy the larger spaces on the left while Daily Deals appear on the right, and users can page through the carousel to see additional discounted products organically recommended based on current popularity, according to the documentation.

Outside the curated calendar, partners can self-serve launch discounts of 7 to 14 days capped at 40%, weeklong deals beginning Mondays at 10am Pacific and running seven days, and custom discounts scheduled to begin the following calendar day, alongside Steam-organized themed sales and four major seasonal sales each year: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Discounts must fall between 10% and 95% and run no shorter than one day and no longer than 14 days, and any discount of 20% or greater automatically triggers an email notification to players who have the game on their wishlist.

Valve said it has no definite date for implementing the changes and is still tuning the details, adding that it does not believe the new system will be perfect right away but that it wanted to set expectations. The company said it will have more clarity about launch timing in the upcoming weeks and expects to fully cease using a curated calendar for the Discounts & Events section sometime early next year.