Steam is overhauling how games get featured, moving away from manual curation to personalized recommendations

Valve has announced a significant change to how games get discovered on Steam's front page. Starting in early 2027, the platform will move away from its long-standing model of manually curated, fixed placement slots toward dynamic, personalized recommendations tailored to each user's preferences and purchase history.

Under the current system, Valve employees select which games receive featured spots in a limited number of slots. This means only a fraction of discounted games ever receive valuable front-page visibility, making placement heavily dependent on relationships, direct pitches, and marketing budgets.

According to Valve, preliminary experiments with the new approach resulted in up to 10 times as many games appearing daily in the Discounts & Events section, alongside measurable increases in store page visits and wishlist additions.

"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," Valve wrote in its announcement.

The change addresses a long-standing friction point for independent and smaller studios, which typically lack the marketing resources to compete with AAA publishers for manual curation slots. Valve has already paused scheduling curated placements in the Weekend Deals, Midweek Deals, and Daily Deals sections. The company plans to roll out new tools to help developers manage discounts and sales events more effectively.

The timing coincides with Steam's upcoming events, including the Autumn Sale beginning October 1 and Next Fest at the end of October.