Check out Steam Next Fest



Steam Next Fest is here! Next Fest is a multi-day celebration of upcoming games where you can Play What's Next from first-time and veteran developers alike.

Today through June 20 @ 10am PT, we're showcasing over 1,000 demos for the newest upcoming games across every genre from teams all over the world! You'll have the opportunity to try these unreleased games for free throughout Next Fest – no expo halls, no queues.

New for this edition of Next Fest: a Steam badge that levels up with each Next Fest demo you play.

Join us today starting @ 11am PT to catch our own live show to kick off the event, and stick around for developer-hosted livestreams and chats throughout the week.

With so many amazing games to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. We've got your back, with lots of easy ways to explore Next Fest!

• Browse by category, or a game’s primary tags, to find demos in your favorite genre; you can even search by sub-genres or specific features.
  
• Check out the Event Schedule for developer-hosted livestreams and chats to see who you might like to connect with.

Check out Steam Next Fest

#SteamNextFest

Note: This update was re-released on June 7 to fix some regressions in Remote Play.

Remote Play

• Greatly improved desktop capture quality on Windows, now supporting variable framerates
  
• Fixed crash on Windows when the stream resolution is changed
  
• Fixed streaming connections failing after Steam has been restarted
  
• Fixed Remote Play Together dialogs occasionally not resizing correctly
  
• Fixed color quality when streaming from Linux to Steam Deck

macOS/Linux

• Fixed game install/update failing for Steam libraries installed on a filesystem that does not support preallocation (e.g. ExFAT, FAT32)

Continuing our monthly series, we're happy to unveil Steam's Top Releases for the month of April. As always, we look at every release for the month, highlighting the Top 20 games and Top 5 DLC releases based on their first two weeks of revenue. We also highlight the top 5 free-to-play games, ranked by the number of unique players they acquired after launch.

The Top Releases of April 2022

As students around the world prepare for their spring graduations, April's Top Releases include a number of games making prominent Early Access graduations of their own. From the superb balance between relaxation and strategy in Dorfromantik, to the master class on destruction in Teardown, all of these 1.0s demonstrate how much the Early Access model can shine. Players can take the opportunity to directly participate in the evolution of their favorite games and franchises, while developers gain insights and observations into how their games are actually being experienced. The result is a mutually beneficial development journey yielding polished releases on graduation day. A big tip of the cap (and gown) to each of April's Early Access Graduates.

With each month's Top Release list, we continue to be amazed by the variety and originality that is incorporated into well-known genres and franchises. Whether slicing by theme, mechanic, genre, or aesthetic, April's Top Releases prove yet again that players appreciate this variety with some extra variety on top. Looking for a game within a game? April has horse racing in Winning Post 9 2022, baseball in Out of the Park Baseball 23, and pachinko in Peglin. How about a journey to fabled fantasy universe? Visit Arrakis in Dune: Spice Wars, a Galaxy Far Far Away in LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga, or the fabled Round Table in King Arthur: Knight's Tale. April may have failed to settle the age-old question of “What’s the BEST genre?”, but players seem to be pretty happy that the debate will go on.

Finally, it wouldn't be a Top Release list without congratulating the teams that are releasing a product on Steam for the very first time. A big welcome and congrats go out to these development teams on their successful Steam debuts.

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If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:

• October 2021
  
• November 2021
  
• December 2021
  
• January 2022
  
• February 2022
  
• March 2022

What do mice, lasers, tuk tuks, and wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubemen have in common? They're all things you can race in games here on Steam (for real), and during Steam Racing Fest is the perfect time to try! Check out the official Steam Racing Fest page now.

From May 23rd - May 30th, find discounts, demos, and trivia all centered around the speedier side of Steam. We're even offering a special racing-themed badge you can unlock if you dare to get through the trivia without getting... totaled. Eh? Like a car? (Terrible car pun, you're right.)

Test your knowledge (and collect interesting new tidbits of trivia) by clicking on the top of the official page. Follow the instructions to find your badge, and then get ready to wow your friends with all the fun new facts you've collected along the way!

We were so excited about gathering racing game trivia, we gathered a bit too much. So here are some interesting trivia tidbits to rev your engine (is this car pun better?). Did you know:

• F-Zero and Wipeout were the first of the subgenre AG (anti-gravity) racers. Other games that fall into that category today are games like Redout, BallisticNG, and Antigraviator.
  
• There's a drifting game commonly found in modern arcades that you can buy actual driver's licenses for: Initial D Arcade Stage.
  
• You can trace the history of modern racing games waaaaay further back in time than you might assume. Arcade games were inspired by mechanical racing games that looked a lot more like board games, and can be traced back to the very beginning of the 20th century. (Cough-cough. That might come up later. Cough.)

Join us for trivia, demos, discounts, and more during Steam Racing Fest running from May 23rd - May 30th on Steam.

Visit Steam Racing Fest Official Page

General

• Improved client reconnection logic to prevent excessive reconnect attempts and to prevent synchronized reconnects among different clients
  
• Fixed a crash at startup on machines with certain older video drivers

Library

• Fixed flickering in activity feed on app details page when clicking on the same game in the game list

This update was re-released on May 13th with additional fixes

General

• Fixed Steam Chat, game properties and certain other browser popup windows not rendering initially on Windows
  
• Updated currency format of wallet balance in Russian ruble and South African rand
  
• Improved currency formatting in a few places including the Steam Wallet balance display to better match the way those currencies are displayed on the store

Library

• Greatly improved performance when opening app details for games with lots of DLC, like Rocksmith 2014
  
• Fixed mini-profiles not showing on hover in Friends Who Play section
  
• Added Steam Deck compatibility options to dynamic collections

Steam Cloud

• Fixed failing to backup/restore game files on user change or app-compatibility change in some cases where the game file location and the Steam backup location are on different volumes
  
• Fixed case when a local file timestamp changes, but the file itself is unmodified, so that we don’t create a file conflict unnecessarily
  
• Fixed condition causing unknown file timestamps in Cloud Conflict dialog, and fixed the dialog to display “Unknown” in any remaining cases where the timestamp isn’t available
  
• Fixed sync error for games which have converted Cloud-saved files into directories
  
• Fixed Cloud sync for some games with slightly malformed cross-platform Steam Cloud sync settings
  
• Fixed to no longer leave game saves in place from previous Steam users for most games that use the AutoCloud feature. This behavior was considered the safest path, however it gave the appearance that game files were getting shared/colliding between Steam accounts. Now, those files will be moved (instead of copied) to the safe local backup location Steam uses when the account changes.

Steam Overlay

• Fixed corruption on some Vulkan applications on Intel Xe GPUs

Remote Play

• Open the on-screen keyboard if the game calls the ShowGamepadTextInput() Steamworks API while streaming to Steam Deck

SteamNetworkingSockets

• Fixed a bug causing servers using FakeIP to not be listed in the server browser
  
• Fixed a bug which could cause poor performance and asserts if packet loss was extremely high

macOS

• Fixed cases where install preallocation would create larger files than necessary

Linux

• Fixed an issue where updating graphics drivers would re-download media pre-caching files
  
• Fixed the file picker extension filters not appearing when selecting Library custom art
  
• Fixed adding non-Steam shortcuts with spaces in the path
  
• Added home and mounted drive paths to the file picker quick bar
  
• Added the ability for the file picker to remember the previous location when selecting Library custom art

Returning to our monthly series, we're happy to announce Steam's Top Releases for the month of March. As always, we look at every release for the month, highlighting the Top 20 games and Top 5 DLC releases based on their first two weeks of revenue. We also highlight the top 5 free-to-play games, ranked by the number of unique players they acquired after launch.

The Top Releases of March 2022

With the first of many Steam Deck shipments arriving in March, it's been a treat to watch players unbox the new hardware and experience it for the very first time. For those players who have been on Steam for years, it's also exciting to see them accessing their Libraries in a whole new way, including many of the Top Releases they've collected through the years. Along with continuing to test and verify games in Steam's back-catalog, this month's Top Releases demonstrate that many brand new releases will be supported as well. With roughly half of this month's Top Releases tested and confirmed as Playable, fans can enjoy brand new hits like Tunic and Core Keeper from home, or while discovering the many places that are perfect for a Steam Deck.

It’s also no coincidence that one of March’s Top Releases is Aperture Desk Job. Designed as a free playable short for Valve’s new Steam Deck, Desk Job walks you through the handheld’s controls and features while not being nearly as boring as that sounds. Aperture Desk Job is also playable on PC with a controller.

In our efforts bring more games to the Steam Deck, we've continued adding new features and support for Steam Input. On top of allowing more games to be played on the Steam Deck, these updates give developers more options and control when integrating controller support with their games. This was on full display in March, with most of the month's Top Releases supporting controller options beyond a keyboard and mouse. So whether you're on the top rope in WWE 2K22 or trying to save Japan from the supernatural in Ghostwire: Tokyo, you can take control with the device that is suited to you.

We'd also like to congratulate the teams who are shipping a game on Steam for the first time. A huge amount of work goes into to making a Top Release, and these teams did it with their first launch on Steam. A big welcome and congrats go out to these successful Steam debuts.

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If you're curious about previous months, here are more Top Release lists:

• September 2021
  
• October 2021
  
• November 2021
  
• December 2021
  
• January 2022
  
• February 2022