Steam's Discounts & Events section will drop its curated calendar

Valve is changing how Steam decides which discounted games players see. In an announcement to developers on September 29, 2026, it said it plans to stop using a hand-scheduled calendar for the store’s Discounts & Events section in early 2027 and switch to dynamic recommendations personalised for each customer.

What changes

Today, the section is made of a fixed number of curated slots. Some are booked by developers through Steamworks, others by the Steam team. Valve says that moving away from this lets more discounted games and sale events appear on the homepage and elsewhere in the store, instead of competing for a small number of places.

Valve has already paused scheduling curated placements in the section, the familiar Weekend Deals, Midweek Deals and Daily Deals. Developers who had already booked one of those keep it, and do not need to do anything.

Why Valve is doing it

According to the post, Valve spent the past few months testing personalised recommendations in place of some curated spots. In that section, it says, the test showed 10 times more games to customers on a given day, and brought what it calls meaningful increases in store page visits, wishlist additions and additions to the cart. Valve argues that a manually managed calendar makes less sense given how varied players’ tastes are and how many relevant deals are live at any time.

What is not settled yet

Valve gave no firm date. It said it is still tuning the details, expects to share timing in the coming weeks, and does not expect the new system to work perfectly from the start. It also promised new and updated tools for developers to manage discounts and sales, so that, in its words, they spend less time trying to persuade Valve to feature their games.

For players, Valve describes the new section as personalised for each customer, so two people browsing Discounts & Events may see different games there, chosen by Steam’s recommendations rather than by a shared schedule.