With the Winter Sale season in full swing, we are excited to share Steam's Best of 2023 lists. We quite enjoy putting these together to see how the year played out. So take a look and reminisce about all of the great games that made 2023 a year to remember.

At the bottom of each list, you'll find notes explaining how games make it onto these lists and the criteria for how each list is organized.

Happy Holidays from everyone at Steam!

The Steam Winter Sale has officially begun, with deals on games from all over the world through January 4th at 10am Pacific.

Claim a free sticker for each day you visit the sale, simply by visiting any category page.


And while you're here, check out the finalists (from your nominations!) for this year's Steam Awards, and score a sticker for each category you cast your vote in. Read the list of nominees and vote right here on the Steam Awards page.

The Steam Award Categories are:

• Game of the Year
  
• VR Game of the Year
  
• Labor of Love
  
• NEW: Best Game on Steam Deck
  
• Better with Friends
  
• Most Innovative Gameplay
  
• Outstanding Story-Rich Game
  
• Best Game You Suck At
  
• Outstanding Visual Style
  
• Best Soundtrack
  
• Sit Back and Relax

Have fun!

Starting today, users who have opted into the Steam Client Beta will see a new version of the shopping cart when checking out on the Steam Store. These users will also be able to mark games in their library as private.

The Steam Store's updated shopping cart includes some handy new features:

• Inline gifting - just in time for the holidays, you can now purchase gifts for multiple friends (and yourself) without having to make multiple purchases. Plus gift messaging has been simplified to speed up the checkout process.
  
• One cart across all devices - items in your shopping cart will now follow you across all devices where you're signed in to Steam. Note that during the beta, the cart will only be accessible within the beta client.
  
• Private purchasing - keeping your games private starts before you even make a purchase, so the new cart lets you mark a game as private before you check out.

Steam has long supported multiple levels of privacy for your Steam profile and your entire games list. However, there are times when you might want to keep a few of the games you own off those lists.

Starting today you’ll be able to mark specific games as private and they’ll disappear from anywhere they’d be viewed by someone other than you. That includes: your ownership, in-game status, playtime, and activity in that game. This additional control allows you to keep most of your Steam Library visible to your friends, so they can see what you are playing and join in, yet also keep a few of those games just to yourself.

How do I mark a game as private?
There are three places where a game can be marked as private: from your shopping cart, your game list (which is accessible from a web browser), and from your Steam Client Library (Game page > Settings > Manage...)

You can learn more about private games on the FAQ

We've got more checkout related updates in the works, so make sure to send us your feedback and report bugs.

The end of the year is often time for reflection: What did you learn in the last 12 months about yourself? About your goals in life? About your gaming?

Alright, obviously that last one is the one we are most excited about, because your 2023 Steam Year in Review is officially here! That's right, YOURS. Everyone gets their own look back at the games they played the most, the achievements they unlocked, and all sorts of other fun facts from the past year.

We've put together some of the highlights from your time on Steam in 2023, and bundled it all up into one fun page of facts. Scroll through and find out what genres you spent the most time in, and how some of your stats compare to the Steam community as a whole.

When you're done, you can keep it to yourself OR share it with your friends, either through Steam or links to social media (there's even an official hashtag: #SteamYearInReview). You can also set it to appear in your profile showcase. Interested in showing your 2022 Year in Review as well? You can toggle between the two years anytime, or head to the Points Shop to free up some space to share both at once.

Start perusing your Steam Year in Review here. You can also click on the link we emailed you, or head to the drop-down menu on Steam under your user name.

Enjoy looking back at your year of gaming on Steam! And hey, if you end up making time for other kinds of reflection, that's cool too.

Check out the official trailer to get a taste of what's to come in the Steam Winter Sale, December 21st (10am Pacific) - January 4th (10am Pacific), and get ready to vote in the Steam Awards.

Cozy on up (or throw on some sunscreen if you're in the southern hemisphere) and explore the thousands of games on sale during the Steam Winter Sale, from developers around the world. Feeling adventurous? Visit any category page on the store during the sale to claim a free daily sticker.



The Winter Sale also means voting for your favorite game in The Steam Awards. Millions of players from around the world cast nominations during the Autumn Sale and we've narrowed it down to the five finalists in each category. Starting December 21st, you can cast your vote for the winner in each category and earn a special Steam Awards sticker for each category you vote in. To see the finalists, and for voting once the sale begins, please check out the Steam Awards page.

The Steam Award Categories are:

• Game of the Year
  
• VR Game of the Year
  
• Labor of Love
  
• NEW: Best Game on Steam Deck
  
• Better with Friends
  
• Most Innovative Gameplay
  
• Outstanding Story-Rich Game
  
• Best Game You Suck At
  
• Outstanding Visual Style
  
• Best Soundtrack
  
• Sit Back and Relax

See you soon for the Steam Winter Sale, December 21st - January 4th at 10am Pacific.