Valve to Replace Manual Curation with Personalized Algorithms for Steam Sales Promotions

Valve announced that its Steam platform will transition from manually curated discount promotions to personalized algorithmic recommendations in early 2027. The shift aims to show more games to individual customers, with early testing demonstrating tenfold increases in content visibility and measurable gains in customer engagement metrics. Industry analysts suggest the change could support greater diversity in game discovery, though implementation details remain important considerations.

Steam's transition toward algorithmic curation represents an evolution of discovery systems already underway on the platform. The company has been gradually introducing personalized recommendation sections, such as the Personal Calendar feature launched in 2025, which have reportedly delivered significant benefits to smaller publishers seeking visibility. The shift away from manual curation in the Discounts & Events section—currently a prominently featured storefront area—marks an acceleration of this broader strategy to match individual user preferences with available game offerings.

Early testing data has shown substantial improvements in content exposure, with algorithmic sorting demonstrating the capacity to surface ten times more titles to users within the same section compared to traditional hand-picked selections. This expansion of visibility extends to multiple engagement metrics, including wishlist additions and shopping cart conversions, suggesting the approach may benefit both player discovery and developer reach across different market segments.