Summer means no school, hot weather, and deeply discounted PC games. If you have any money left over from the GoG Summer Sale, get ready to kiss it goodbye. Steam’s annual Summer Sale has been running for years, offering up to 90% off many titles. You’ll find discounts on indie games, older AAA titles, as well as some recent major releases like Doom and The Witcher 3.
Sales of years past have come with Daily Deals, Flash Sales, and mini-games. Recently Valve has moved away from that. Now there’s just a lengthy sale with static discounts. It’s a bit less fun and dynamic, but also far less stressful than having to constantly check in to Steam.
The Steam Summer Sale 2016 (AKA Steam Summer Picnic Sale) does include its own series of trading cards. These can be earned through purchasing (1 per $10 spent) as well as exploring your discovery queue. The discovery queue pulls up a series of 10 games that Steam thinks you’d be interested in based on your current library and interests. You can earn up to three cards per day by using the queue three times. It barely takes any time, and who knows, you may find a fantastic hidden gem.
Like the GoG sale, Steam’s Summer Sale comes equipped with several bundles that offer further discounts. The extra bundle discount isn’t great (10-15%) but it’s a decent deal if you’re interested in all the games.
There are far too many titles to list them all here, but the following are some of my personal recommendations. I based them on the discount, whether a title is at its cheapest sale price, and the general awesomeness of the games. As always, I highly recommend using Steamdb to calculate the best deals on Steam.
- Doom $35.99 (40%)
- Grand Theft Auto V $35.99 (40%)
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt $24.99 (50%)
- Fallout 4 $29.99 (50%)
- The Talos Principle $9.99 (75%)
- ARK: Survival Evolved $16.49 (45%)
- Rise of the Tomb Raider $38.99 (35%)
- Tom Clancy’s The Division $44.99 (25%)
- Dark Souls III $44.99 (25%)
- MASSIVE CHALICE $3.99 (80%)
- Stardew Valley $11.99 (20%)
- Transformers: Devastation $12.49 (75%)
- Pillars of Eternity $17.99 (60%)
- Mark of the Ninja $3.74 (75%)
- Rebel Galaxy $9.99 (50%)
- Crypt of the Necrodancer $3.74 (75%)
- Life is Strange (all episodes) $9.99 (50%)
- This War of Mine $4.99 (75%)
- BioShock Infinite + DLC $12.49 (75%)
- Axiom Verge $11.99 (40%)
- Rocket League $11.99 (40%)
- Dungeon of the Endless $4.07 (66%)
- Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine $2.09 (86%)
- Aquaria $2.49 (75%)
The Steam Summer Sale ends July 4 at 10 a.m. Pacific.
