Effective Discount Strategies on Steam

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Discounting on Steam can help you grow your audience and extend the lifespan of your product. Utilizing both official Steam sales events and custom discounts can significantly contribute to your game’s long-term success. Remember to consider your product and community when implementing these strategies.

Configuring Discounts

Required Permissions

To discount a product, you need the “Manage Pricing & Discounts” permission and must be a Steamworks partner currently receiving payment for the product.

Setting Up a Discount

Configure discounts by navigating to Steam’s discounting dashboard, where you can enter and save your desired discount percentages for each event.

Editing or Deleting Discounts

You can edit or delete discounts up until they start by adjusting the discount percentage or setting it to zero, respectively.

Specific Discounting Rules

  • No discounts within 30 days of a price increase or termination of a previous discount, except for Steam-wide events.
  • Launch discounts are an exception, but cannot be followed by another discount for 30 days.
  • Discounts cannot exceed 90% or fall below 10%.
  • Custom discounts should range from 1 day to two weeks in duration.

Types of Discounts on Steam

Self-Serve Discounts

You can manage these discounts independently:

  • Launch Discount: Suggested to be 10-15%, lasting for 7 days post-launch, with a 40% maximum.
  • Weeklong Deals: These start every Monday at 10 AM Pacific and run for 7 days.
  • Custom Discounts: Used for specific events tied to your product.
  • Themed and Seasonal Sales: Participate in Steam’s major seasonal sales with a discount.

Curated Discounts

Managed by Valve, these are based on player data:

  • Daily Deal: A 24-hour feature on the Steam homepage with discounts typically lasting one week.
  • Midweek Deal: A 72-hour promotion from Monday to Thursday.
  • Weekend Deal: Featured from Thursday to Monday with a similar duration to Midweek Deals.

Discounting Best Practices

  • Stairstep Your Discounts: Gradually increase discount percentages over time to avoid devaluing your product.
  • Time Discounts with Updates: Merge discounts with content updates to enhance customer interest.
  • Consider Your Sales Decay Curve: Understand when your game is settling into its sales curve before considering discounts.
  • Discount All Associated Packages: Ensure that all versions and DLC of your product are discounted together for maximum impact.

Implementing these discounting practices and rules will help you maximize your success on Steam, ensuring both you and your customers benefit from these strategies.

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