Steam Sale 2026 Calendar: Every Date and Start Time

You open Steam and there's not a single discount banner in sight. A sale feels like it should be starting soon, but you can't pin down exactly when — and of course your wallet balance is empty. Sound familiar? The Summer Sale wrapped up on July 9, and there's an almost three-month calendar gap until the next big event.

The Steam sale calendar for 2026 follows Valve's usual rhythm: winter, spring, summer and autumn waves, plus standalone themed fests and three rounds of Steam Next Fest. The next major event is the Autumn Sale, running October 1–8, 2026, followed by the Winter Sale, which kicks off December 17 and runs through January 4, 2027. Below is the full calendar: what's already passed, what's still ahead, what time each sale starts (Moscow time, with a note on other zones), and how to get your wallet ready in advance.

The Steam 2026 calendar in 30 seconds

If you just need the quick answer, here it is:

• We're in mid-2026 now, and the Summer Sale has already wrapped — it ended July 9. Right now only smaller themed fests are running, like Social Deduction (July 13–16) and Train Fest (July 20–27).
• The next big event is the Autumn Sale, October 1–8, 2026, officially confirmed by Valve.
• After that comes the Winter Sale, running December 17, 2026 through January 4, 2027 — the longest sale of the year.
• Every seasonal sale kicks off around 8:00 PM Moscow time (10:00 AM US Pacific Time), though the exact hour can shift by ±1 hour depending on US daylight saving transitions.
• Between the big seasonal waves, Valve keeps the store page active with themed fests — 22 of them are officially scheduled for 2026, on top of three Steam Next Fest rounds featuring demos and the four seasonal sales.

If you just wanted a quick answer to "when's the next Steam sale in 2026" — these are the dates to keep in mind for the rest of the year.

Every Steam sale in 2026: full date calendar

Here's the complete table of seasonal sales for the year — it covers the most common questions at once: how many Steam sales there are, when each one ends, and its current status (past or upcoming).

One important note on how these sales actually work: since 2015, Valve has dropped "daily deals" and flash discounts within a sale. The price you see on day one holds through the last day of the sale — so there's no need to hunt for a special hour to catch a better price on a specific game. You just need to buy before the sale closes.

What time do sales start, and when do they end

Steam sales typically start around 8:00 PM Moscow time — that's not a strict "8:00:00 on the dot" figure, but a pattern that's held up over years of tracking by sites like SteamDB: Valve traditionally launches and ends sales at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7/UTC-8), which converts to roughly 8:00–9:00 PM Moscow time.

The hour-long variance comes down to timing: the US and Russia switch to daylight saving/standard time on different dates, so the same "10:00 AM PT" can land at 8:00 PM Moscow time in March but 9:00 PM Moscow time in November. If you're waiting for a sale to hit "exactly 8:00 PM" and the store page hasn't updated yet, give it another hour — that's normal variance, not a glitch.

Sale duration is more predictable — it's fixed and known ahead of time:

• Spring and Autumn sales usually run about a week — 7–8 days.
• The 2026 Summer Sale stretched almost two weeks — June 25 to July 9.
• The Winter Sale is the longest, running nearly three weeks: December 17, 2026 to January 4, 2027. So if you're asking when the Steam sale ends, for the winter season the answer is January 4.

Worth keeping in mind too: refund rules for sale purchases don't change during a discount. You can refund a game within 14 days of purchase as long as you've played less than 2 hours — the sale price has no bearing on those terms.

What's already happened in 2026

The first half of 2026 is behind us — here's a quick recap.

The Winter 2025→2026 Sale started in late December 2025 and wrapped up around January 5, 2026 — the classic New Year crossover, and the longest sale of that season.

The Spring Sale ran roughly March 19–26, 2026. It doesn't always get the same spotlight as Summer or Winter — Valve tends to promote it more quietly — but it's still a full week of discounts across most of the catalog, just without as much marketing noise around it.

The Summer Sale was the most talked-about event of the first half of the year, running June 25 through July 9, 2026. If you missed it and want the details — top discounts, badge and card mechanics — we covered it in depth in a separate piece on the 2026 Summer Sale; no need to repeat it here.

Steam Next Fest has already run twice in 2026: February 23 – March 2, and June 15–22. Both times it was a week of free demos for hundreds of indie and mainstream titles alike — no direct discounts on full versions, just trial access and a chance to add favorites to your wishlist.

The first half of the year was also packed with themed fests — showcases built around things like survival games, indie horror, or similar genre groupings, all with discounts attached. There were several, running back-to-back between February and June, but each one is a narrow genre-specific event lasting a few days, not a store-wide sale, so there's no need to break each one down in detail here.

What's coming before the end of 2026

Here's the part worth planning around right now.

Autumn Sale, October 1–8, 2026. This event used to be called the "Autumn Sale" but functionally played the role of a pre-holiday Black Friday, since it used to run late in November. Starting in 2025, Valve moved it to early autumn: in 2025 it ran September 29 – October 6, and in 2026 it's October 1–8. That means there's now almost two and a half months between the Autumn and Winter sales, instead of the couple weeks it used to be.

Steam Next Fest, October 19–26, 2026. The third and final demo showcase of the year, right after the Autumn Sale. According to the official Steamworks schedule, the fest starts October 19 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-7) and ends October 26 at the same time.

Black Friday. Now that the Autumn Sale is no longer combined with Black Friday, Valve has said it will separately highlight discounted games in late November through a special-offers hub on the store page. Exact dates and format haven't been announced yet.

Winter Sale, December 17, 2026 – January 4, 2027. Traditionally the longest and busiest sale of the year — nearly three weeks, crossing over the New Year, and it usually overlaps with the Steam Awards voting period as well.

Between all these major events, the second half of the year is packed with themed fests. Here's the full list with dates:

If you're specifically interested in the Social Deduction fest — games in the spirit of "Among Us" and team betrayal mechanics — we covered it separately: the Social Deduction Fest ran July 13–16, and that piece includes the full list of participating games.

Which sale offers the best deals

There's no single right answer here — each season plays a different role rather than competing to offer the single deepest discount on any one game. The Winter Sale usually gives you the most time to browse: nearly three weeks compared to a week for Spring and Autumn, and it typically overlaps with Steam Awards voting, which draws extra attention to the catalog.

The Summer Sale is traditionally the most talked-about — it falls during vacation season and drives the most traffic to the store page, but in terms of length, the 2026 edition (June 25 – July 9) is shorter than Winter. Spring and Autumn are more compact, week-long windows without as much buzz around them, but the same catalog is on sale either way.

The practical takeaway: if a game you're watching hasn't gone on a deep discount yet, your odds are roughly the same across any of the four seasons, so there's usually no reason to skip Autumn just to wait for Winter. But if your goal is to stretch a budget across the most titles, the Winter Sale gives you the most time to do it, simply because it lasts longer.

Steam Next Fest and themed fests — what's the difference

Steam Next Fest isn't a sale — it's a showcase of free demos. A few times a year, Valve brings together hundreds of developers who open up trial versions of games that are unreleased or recently launched — no purchase discounts involved, just free trials and the option to add favorites to your wishlist.

A themed fest works differently: it's a narrow selection of games tied to one genre or theme (cooking sims, horror, auto-battlers, train games) with discounts on those specific titles. A fest usually runs 3–8 days and doesn't touch the whole Steam catalog — just the selected category.

The main difference from a seasonal sale comes down to scale: a seasonal sale covers nearly the entire store, while a fest covers a narrow niche. So if you're not into that particular genre, it's safe to skip a themed fest and just wait for the next big wave — spring, summer, autumn or winter.

One more common question worth addressing: refunds on sale purchases follow the standard rules regardless of discount — you can refund a game within 14 days of purchase if you've played less than 2 hours. The sale price doesn't affect these terms, and that applies the same way whether you bought during a seasonal sale or a themed fest.

How to prepare and avoid overpaying

It pays to get ready before the sale goes live, not after the store page has already updated. Here are a few steps that actually work.

Build your wishlist ahead of time. Steam sends a notification when a wishlisted game goes on sale — the simplest way to not miss a title you want among thousands of listings on the store page. The earlier you build it before a sale starts, the less likely you are to forget something important at the last minute.

Track price history. A "-70%" tag doesn't always mean it's the best price ever — sometimes the same game was cheaper during a previous sale. Price-tracking tools help you avoid overpaying for something that might drop even lower next month, especially for games that show up often in both seasonal sales and genre-specific fests.

Set a budget ahead of time, not on the fly. When hundreds of games go on sale at once, it's easy to fill your cart way beyond what you planned — especially in the first few hours, when the excitement is at its peak. Deciding how much you're willing to spend in advance is a lot easier than working it out in the moment.

Top up your Steam wallet ahead of time. This is the most practical tip — and it's usually where people hit a snag: you can't top up your Steam balance in rubles directly from a Russian card through the official payment form; Russian cards simply aren't accepted there. Once a sale goes live and the clock starts ticking, every extra minute spent looking for a payment method costs you a spot in line for the hottest deals.

At KRAB.GG, we top up Steam balances by account login, no password required — the funds arrive through the official channel, the same way an in-client top-up would, just accessible from regions where direct card payment isn't. If you haven't used this option before, we've got a separate walkthrough on how to top up Steam covering the whole process step by step. And if you still have questions about crediting times or limits, check our FAQ.

Should you wait for the sale or top up now

To sum up: the next major Steam sale is the Autumn Sale, October 1–8, 2026, followed by the Winter Sale, December 17 through January 4, 2027. In between, there's the October Steam Next Fest and a handful of smaller themed fests, but genuinely broad discounts across the whole catalog only happen during those two windows.

You don't need to wait for the sale to actually start to know the timing — plan around ~8:00 PM Moscow time and have your list ready in advance. What you shouldn't put off, though, is loading up your balance: you can top up your Steam wallet right now, so when the Autumn or Winter Sale goes live, you're not wasting time looking for a payment method and can grab the games you want at the lowest price of the year.