This is it: the last Steam sale of the year, the big one, the winter extravaganza. The Steam Winter Sale is ideal for grabbing that co-op shooter your Discord group’s had its eye on, or picking up a cutting edge 2023 game to put that new Christmas PC to the test.
Since this sale follows close on the heels of the autumn sale, some of our recommendations remain the same from just a few weeks ago, but there are a few fresh deals and deeper discounts this time around. The big one is Baldur’s Gate 3, which is currently on sale for 10% off at $53.99 / £44.99.
We’ve organized the best deals from the Steam Winter Sale starting with our favorite games of 2023, followed by some of last year’s bests and then a selection of bona fide classics that are at least 50% off.
The Steam Winter Sale runs from December 21 – January 4. For even more recommendations, we recently compiled a list of great games that always get Steam sale discounts, and you can check out guides to the best RPGs, best FPS games, best strategy games, and best survival games for even more inspiration.
Steam Winter Sale: The Best of 2023
Here’s a selection of sales from 2023’s cream of the crop. Many of these games have come up in our GOTY award discussions or have been in contention for awards elsewhere online. If you’ve been waiting for them to hit just the right discount, this sale might be the time.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor | $34.99/£29.99 (50% off)
Respawn did it again with some good Star Warsin’ at a time when there’s not a lot of good Star Warsin’ outside of Andor. Jedi: Survivor is “easily the best modern Star Wars game,” as Morgan put it.
System Shock | $25.99/£22.74 (35% off)
Looking Glass’s original System Shock was often overlooked in favor of its famous successor, and no matter how much you love the classics, it can be hard to go back to its chunky, pre-mouselook interface and grueling, sink-or-swim exploration. Enter Nightdive’s excellent remake, which just won one of our GOTY awards.
Pizza Tower | $14.99/£11.24 (25% off)
One of our favorite games of the year, seriously. It’s a “non-stop, absurd, and wonderful slice of speedrunning action,” we said in our 90% review.
More 2023 games on sale:
Atomic Heart | $29.99/£27.49 (50% off)Chants of Sennaar | $15.99/£14.39 (20% off)Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun | $14.95/£12.91 (32% off)Robocop: Rogue City | $34.99/£31.49 (30% off)Octopath Traveler 2 | $41.99/£34.99 (30% off)Hi-Fi Rush | $22.49/£20.24 (25% off)Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection | $48.21 (60% off)Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective | $19.79/£16.48 (34% off)Turbo Overkill | $17.49/£14.69 (30% off)Cocoon | $19.99/£16.79 (20% off)
Steam Winter Sale: 2022 GOTYs
Elden Ring | $35.99/£29.99 (40% off)
🏆 PC Gamer’s 2022 Game of the Year
Our 2022 Game of the Year gets its biggest discount yet for the Winter Sale. This truly gargantuan RPG could easily swallow up your whole holiday break, and there’s an expansion due sometime in 2024…
Marvel’s Midnight Suns |$19.79/£16.49 (67% off)
🏆 2022 GOTY Runner-Up
XCOM-maker Firaxis created our favorite recent superhero game, a mix of XCOM’s gridded turn-based tactics, deck building, and friendship sim. It was definitely underloved, and is worth picking up on sale, matching its lowest price.
Total War: Warhammer 3 | $29.99/£24.99 (50% off)
🏆 Best Strategy Game 2022
The biggest discount yet on 2022’s best strategy game. You no longer need to own both the previous entries to play the Immortal Empires sandbox mega-campaign, which is good, although it’s accumulated a lot of negative reviews recently as backlash for its DLC pricing.
Strange Horticulture | $7.49/£6.39 (50% off)
🏆 Best Puzzle Game 2022
Inheriting a plant shop where nothing is labeled sounds stressful, but it’s actually a wonderful combination of cozy and spooky thanks to fascinatingly odd customers, and a cat you can pet. We named Strange Horticulture 2022’s best puzzle game, and this is a sweet price for the year’s best anything.
Vampire Survivors | $3.74/£2.99 (25% off)
🏆 Best Roguelike 2022
In 2022, we called Vampire Survivors “one of the best deals you can get on PC” at its full price: $4.99. For not much more than that you can even grab a bundle that contains all of the DLC released so far.
Teardown | $22.49/£19.49 (25% off)
🏆 Best Sandbox 2022
A physics-based, voxel-powered playground melded with a genius puzzle game: “If I blow up this entire mansion, will I have space to drive this sportscar into the ocean?”
More 2022 award winners on sale:
Neon White | $14.99/12.59 (40% off) | 🏆 Best Platformer 2022The Case of the Golden Idol | $12.59/£11.89 (30% off) | 🏆 Best Story 2022Trombone Champ | $5.99/£4.55 (60% off) | 🏆 Best Comedy Game 2022Card Shark | $9.99/£8.37 (50% off) | 🏆 Best Design 2022Persona 5 Royal | $29.99/£24.99 (50% off) | 🏆 Best RPG 2022Monster Hunter Rise | $15.99/£13.19 (60% off) | 🏆 Best Co-op 2022
Steam Winter Sale: Under $25
Risk of Rain 2 | $12.49/£9.99 (50% off)
An excellent roguelike about fighting hordes of monsters while collecting and combining items to generate increasingly absurd effects. Grab the bundle with the excellent expansion; it’s still under $20.
Pentiment | $13.39/£10.04 (33% off)
Obsidian went in a surprising direction for this 2022 gem. Instead of the usual sci-fi or fantasy RPG, it’s a narrative-focused game set in the 16th century, and it’s great.
Hunt: Showdown | $13.99/£12.59 (65% off)
Here’s Hunt at its lowest price (matching the winter sale). It’s still the most interesting FPS in gaming right now. Other extraction shooters (and other shooters in general) should take note.
Steam Winter Sale: Under $10
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt | $9.99 / £6.24 (75% off)
The big ray tracing update to The Witcher 3 had a bit of a rocky rollout earlier this year, but things got better, and this is an even bigger discount than the 70% off we saw during the Steam Summer Sale.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection| $9.99/£8.49 (75% off)
The big box of Halo is back at its lowest price for this sale. The Master Chief Collection includes every Halo up to Halo 4, including Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, and Halo 2: Anniversary.
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire | $9.99/£7.49 (75% off)
Pillars of Eternity 2 is one of the great RPGs of the last decade. Also, the upcoming Avowed takes place in this world.
Steam Winter Sale: Under $5
Loop Hero | $4.94/£4.22 (67% off)
The Vampire Survivors of 2021, in the sense that it’s an inexpensive game that it’s easy to devote way more time to than you ever thought you would.
Metro 2033 Redux | $1.99/£1.77 (90% off)
One of the all-time best singleplayer shooters by a lot of measures. The original released in 2010, while the Redux version bumped it up to 4A’s latest engine tech in 2014. A damn good FPS for just $2.
Steam Winter Sale: 10 years of GOTY winners
All but one of our Game of the Year winners from the past decade are on sale right now (and 2023’s winner, yet to be revealed, is also currently discounted). Read about why these games are so special in our Game of the Year awards archive.
2022: Elden Ring | $35.99/£29.99 (40% off)2021: Valheim | $11.99/£9.29 (40% off)2020: Death Stranding: Director’s Cut | $19.99/£17.49 (50% off)2019: Disco Elysium | $9.99/£8.74 (75% off)2018: Into the Breach | $7.49/£5.69 (50% off)2017: Divinity: Original Sin 2 | $13.49/£8.99 (70% off)2016: Dishonored 2 | $2.99/£2.49 (90% off)2015: Metal Gear Solid 5 | $19.99/£24.99 (not on sale)2014: Alien Isolation | $9.99/£8.74 (75% off)2013: Spelunky | $3.74/£2.74 (75% off)
