Steam discounts and seasonal sales: the rules

Types of discount

Type	Who runs it	Key facts
Launch discount	You	Starts at release and runs 7–14 days, at 10–40% off. Valve suggests around 10–15%. It's set below the release date on your app landing page, not in the discount dashboard, and only before release.
Weeklong deal	You	Starts Monday at 10:00 Pacific and runs 7 days.
Custom discount	You	Tie it to an update or an anniversary. It can start from the next calendar day.
Themed sales	Valve	Genre or theme events with their own eligibility and registration.
Seasonal sales	Valve	Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Every game is invited to take part with a discount.
Daily, Midweek and Weekend deals	Valve	Front-page slots Valve picks from player data. You can't buy or negotiate them. They're usually limited to once a year, at least three months apart.

You set your own discounts in the Discount Management dashboard (Apps & Packages → Discount Management). You can edit or delete a discount (set it to 0%) until it starts. You'll need the Manage Pricing & Discounts permission.

Hard limits

Rule	Limit
Discount size	10–95% off. Launch discounts max out at 40%.
Duration	1–14 days. Launch discounts run 7–14 days.
Price changes	You can't change your base price while a discount is active or scheduled.
Minimum prices	A discount can't push any currency below Steam's minimum price threshold.
Bundles	Bundle discounts stack on top of any discount on the games inside.

The three 30-day cooldowns

Cooldown	Starts after	Seasonal sale can bypass it?
Release	Your release: both Early Access release and full release. The launch discount is the only exception.	No
Price increase	Raising your base price in any currency. Price drops don't trigger it.	No
Discount	Any previous discount ends.	Yes

The seasonal sale exception only covers the discount cooldown. A game still inside its release cooldown or price-increase cooldown can't join a seasonal sale. It also only applies to the discounts Valve creates for the seasonal sale in your dashboard. A custom discount you schedule for the same dates doesn't get the exemption.

Wishlist emails

A discount of 20% or more can trigger an email to everyone who wishlisted your game. That makes 20% a meaningful threshold: 15% won't notify anyone. The email uses your main capsule, so if you're running an Artwork Override for the sale, start it about five minutes before the discount.

Worked example: launch, then the Winter Sale

Release with a 7-day launch discount

You release on day 0 at 15% off. The release cooldown now runs until day 30.

The Winter Sale starts on day 34

The release cooldown has ended, and the launch discount's own discount cooldown doesn't block seasonal sales. You can join.

If the sale started on day 20 instead

You'd still be inside the release cooldown and couldn't take part. If you care about a particular seasonal sale, release at least 30 days before it starts.

Leaving Early Access? Raising your price on 1.0 day starts a price-increase cooldown with no exceptions, which rules out a 1.0 launch discount. Raise the price at least 30 days before 1.0; ideally right after a final EA sale, so the two cooldowns run at the same time. The Early Access guide covers the full sequence.

Strategy that works

→

Stairstep

Ease into it: for example 15% at launch, 25–33% a few months later, 50% after a year. A deep discount weeks after launch punishes the players who paid full price.

→

Pair discounts with updates

A sale with a content update and an announcement does far more than a sale alone.

→

Discount everything together

Put the base game, editions and DLC on sale at the same time, even if the percentages differ.

→

One discount, several events

If two featuring events fall within 14 days of each other, a single custom discount covering both means only one cooldown.

Next step: set regional prices with the pricing tool before you plan discounts, because you can't change base prices while a discount is scheduled.