The Steam Summer Sale usually plays it safe. Older games get deep cuts, newer releases get a token 10 or 20 percent off, and everyone moves on. This year broke that pattern. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, a game that launched at full price barely a year ago, is sitting at 60 percent off, its lowest price since release. That almost never happens this early in a game’s life.

The sale runs from June 25 through July 9, 2026, ending at 10am PT. It covers thousands of titles across every genre, with discounts reaching up to 96 percent on select games. I’ve been tracking Steam sales for years, and honestly, this one has a slightly different flavor to it. It’s not just clearance bin classics; it’s a mix of genuine must-haves at prices that make the decision easy.

Why This Steam Summer Sale Feels Different

What most articles missed is the timing angle. Warhorse Studios didn’t just discount Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, they paired the price cut with a free content patch adding a new quest called “A Jester’s Visit.” That’s not something publishers usually do for a game that’s still generating full-price sales elsewhere. It signals confidence that the discount will pull in new players rather than just discount existing owners.

The base game now sits at $24, down from $59.99, with the Royal Edition including all three story expansions at $32. All three DLC packs are already released, so there’s no season pass hanging over your purchase. I’ve been following this game for a while, and honestly, seeing it hit this price so soon after its Game of the Year buzz caught me off guard.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the other headline name. It’s only 25 percent off, its first price drop ever on Steam, but for a game with this much anticipation behind it, even a modest cut at $14.99 felt notable enough that outlets across the board flagged it as a top pick.

The Steam Summer Sale Deals Worth Grabbing

Here’s a rundown of what’s actually worth your money this round, based on what critics and players are pointing to as genuine standouts rather than filler discounts.

Red Dead Redemption 2 dropped to $14.99 from $59.99. It’s one of those games that keeps showing up on best-of lists years after release, and with Grand Theft Auto VI looming, this might be the last quiet window to finish Arthur Morgan’s story before everyone’s talking about Rockstar’s next release instead.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition is $9.99, expansions included. CD Projekt Red has confirmed a new expansion called Songs of the Past for 2027, so getting caught up now, or replaying it, lines up well with what’s coming.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is down to $13.99 from $69.99, an 80 percent cut. It had a genuinely rough PC launch back in 2023, but years of patches have sorted out the worst of the technical issues, and what’s left is one of the stronger Star Wars stories told in games recently.

Dead Space Remake matches a 90 percent discount at $5.99. At that price, there’s very little reason to skip EA Motive’s rebuild of the 2008 horror classic, which many reviewers argue is bleaker and more unsettling than the original it’s based on.

Two Point Museum sits at $20.09, a 33 percent cut, with an expedition mechanic for sourcing exhibits that adds a layer the earlier Two Point games didn’t have. And UFO 50 at $17 gives you 50 fully developed retro-style games in one package, which multiple outlets called the best value in the entire sale.

What the Community Is Actually Saying

Sources suggest Valve’s changes to the trading card system caught a chunk of the community off guard this year. Cards for badge crafting no longer drop automatically during the week leading up to the sale, only once the event officially starts, and the Discovery Queue now hands out animated stickers instead of the mystery cards players used to sell for extra cash.

Reactions on Steam’s own discussion forums have been mixed, with some players calling it a reasonable change since event items should only drop during the event, and others saying it killed their incentive to browse the queue daily.

It is rumored that Valve made the shift partly to curb bot farming around badge crafting, though that hasn’t been officially confirmed. What I find interesting here is that this small mechanical change has generated almost as much discussion as the actual game discounts, which tells you how invested longtime Steam users are in the sale’s secondary economy, not just the games themselves.

Looking Past the Steam Summer Sale

If the current trajectory holds, this won’t be the last major event this year. July brings Social Deduction Fest and Train Fest; August is shaping up around cyberpunk games, and October will spotlight horror titles ahead of the Steam Autumn and Winter sales later in the year. Industry insiders hint that Valve is leaning further into themed micro sales throughout the year rather than saving everything for the two big seasonal events, which changes how deliberate shoppers should be about waiting.

The more I looked into this sale, the more it became clear the real story isn’t just the discount percentages; it’s which publishers are willing to cut recent, still-selling titles this deeply. That’s the detail worth remembering the next time a Steam Summer Sale rolls around and you’re wondering whether to wait for an even bigger cut or just buy now.

With the sale running through July 9, there’s still time to build a shortlist rather than impulse buying the first thing that catches your eye. Whether you’re chasing a full-priced release at half off or filling gaps in your library with $5 indie gems, this Steam Summer Sale has delivered some of the most genuinely worthwhile discounts in recent memory.