Steam Winter Sale is one of the biggest discount events of the year, turning wishlists into reality for players looking to expand their libraries. From major releases to hidden indie gems, this sale is packed with deals that are genuinely hard to ignore. But the clock is always ticking, and once the sale ends, so do these prices.
To help you make the most of the remaining time, we’ve rounded up 25 games you should buy before the Steam Winter Sale ends. Whether you’re hunting for incredible value, critically acclaimed experiences, or games you’ve been waiting to grab at the right price, this list has you covered. Time is short, here are the games worth locking into your library before the sale is over.
Hades: $24.99 → $7.49 (-70%)
Hades blends fast-paced roguelike combat with rich storytelling, putting you in the role of Zagreus as he fights his way out of the Underworld. Every run feels meaningful thanks to evolving dialogue, character-driven progression, and razor-sharp combat that rewards skill and experimentation.
Terraria: $9.99 → $4.99 (-50%)
Terraria is a deceptively deep sandbox adventure where exploration, building, crafting, and combat collide. Whether you’re digging deep underground, fighting massive bosses, or constructing elaborate bases, it offers hundreds of hours of freedom-driven gameplay, solo or with friends.
Euro Truck Simulator 2: $19.99 → $4.99 (-75%)
Euro Truck Simulator 2 turns long-distance hauling into a relaxing and oddly addictive experience. With realistic driving mechanics, detailed European cities, and a strong progression system, it’s perfect for players who enjoy slower-paced, immersive simulation games.
Resident Evil 4: $39.99 → $15.99 (-60%)
Resident Evil 4 modernizes a survival horror classic with overhauled visuals, refined combat, and a more intense atmosphere. Balancing action and tension beautifully, it delivers a gripping remake that appeals to both longtime fans and newcomers to the series.
Celeste: $19.99 → $4.99 (-75%)
Celeste is a precision platformer that combines tight, challenging level design with an emotionally resonant story. Every climb tests your reflexes and patience, while its narrative explores themes of anxiety, perseverance, and self-discovery in a surprisingly heartfelt way.
Dishonored: $9.99 → $2.49 (-75%)
Dishonored is a stealth-focused action game that rewards creativity and player choice. With supernatural abilities, flexible level design, and multiple ways to approach every objective, it lets you shape both your playstyle and the fate of its dark, plague-ridden world.
Hollow Knight: $14.99 → $7.49 (-50%)
Hollow Knight offers a beautifully hand-drawn Metroidvania experience built around exploration, precision combat, and atmospheric storytelling. Its vast interconnected world, challenging bosses, and haunting soundtrack make it a must-play for fans of deep, skill-based adventures.
Subnautica: $29.99 → $7.49 (-75%)
Subnautica drops you onto an alien ocean planet where survival depends on exploration, crafting, and discovery. Beneath its calm surface lies constant tension, as players dive deeper into mysterious biomes while uncovering the planet’s hidden story.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: $39.99 → $3.99 (-90%)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sets the gold standard for open-world RPGs with its rich narrative, morally complex choices, and expansive world design. Packed with memorable quests and characters, it remains one of the most content-rich and rewarding RPG experiences ever made.
INSIDE: $19.99 → $1.99 (-90%)
INSIDE is a dark, atmospheric puzzle-platformer that tells its story without a single line of dialogue. Through haunting visuals, clever environmental puzzles, and unsettling themes, it delivers a short but deeply impactful experience that lingers long after it ends.
Detroit: Become Human: $39.99 → $3.99 (-90%)
Detroit: Become Human is a narrative-driven experience built around player choice and branching storylines. Set in a near-future world of androids and humans, every decision shapes the outcome, leading to dramatically different paths and endings.
The Forest: $19.99 → $4.59 (-77%)
The Forest blends open-world survival with psychological horror, tasking players with staying alive after a plane crash on a mysterious island. Base-building, exploration, and intense enemy encounters combine to create a constant sense of danger, especially when played with friends.
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga: $19.99 → $6.99 (-65%)
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga retells all six classic Star Wars films with lighthearted humor and co-op-friendly gameplay. Simple combat, puzzle-filled levels, and a massive character roster make it a timeless pick for casual fun and nostalgic marathons.
Sid Meier’s Civilization V: $29.99 → $7.49 (-67%)
Civilization V is a deep, turn-based strategy experience where you guide a civilization from ancient times to the modern era. With meaningful diplomacy, warfare, and long-term planning, it’s the kind of game that effortlessly turns “one more turn” into an all-night session.
It Takes Two: $39.99 → $7.99 (-80%)
It Takes Two is a strictly co-op adventure built around creativity and teamwork. Each level introduces fresh mechanics and playful ideas, making it one of the most inventive and memorable multiplayer experiences of recent years.
Don’t Starve Together: $14.99 → $5.09 (-66%)
Don’t Starve Together throws players into a harsh, stylized survival world where cooperation is key. Managing hunger, sanity, and environmental threats alongside friends creates tense but often hilarious moments, especially as the difficulty ramps up.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe: $19.99 → $4.99 (-75%)
Oblivion offers a classic open-world RPG experience filled with guilds, quests, and emergent storytelling. Its freedom-driven design and expansive content still hold up, making it an essential pick for fans of traditional fantasy role-playing games.
House Flipper: $24.99 → $2.49 (-90%)
House Flipper turns renovation into a strangely satisfying gameplay loop. Cleaning, repairing, decorating, and selling houses taps into pure transformation-driven enjoyment, perfect for players who enjoy relaxing, goal-oriented simulations.
Superliminal: $19.99 → $6.79 (-66%)
Superliminal is a mind-bending puzzle game built around forced perspective and visual illusions. By challenging how you perceive size, space, and reality itself, it delivers clever puzzles alongside a surprisingly thoughtful narrative.
Rain World: $24.99 → $8.74 (-65%)
Rain World is a brutally atmospheric survival platformer where the world doesn’t care if you survive or not. With dynamic ecosystems, unforgiving mechanics, and minimal hand-holding, it rewards patience, observation, and learning through failure.
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II: $59.99 → $23.99 (-60%)
OCTOPATH TRAVELER II refines the HD-2D formula with richer storytelling, improved combat depth, and beautifully crafted pixel-art visuals. Its interconnected character stories and strategic turn-based battles make it a standout modern JRPG.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection: $39.99 → $9.99 (-75%)
Halo: The Master Chief Collection brings together the core Halo campaigns and multiplayer modes in one massive package. With updated visuals, cross-game matchmaking, and timeless sci-fi action, it’s one of the best value FPS collections available.
Alien: Isolation: $39.99 → $9.99 (-75%)
Alien: Isolation delivers one of the most intense survival horror experiences ever made. Facing a relentlessly adaptive Xenomorph aboard a derelict space station, every encounter is built on tension, fear, and smart resource management.
Assetto Corsa: $19.99 → $4.99 (-75%)
Assetto Corsa is a hardcore racing simulator focused on realism and precision driving. With detailed physics, licensed cars, and strong mod support, it’s a favorite among sim racing fans who value authenticity over arcade-style speed.
Frostpunk: $29.99 → $2.99 (-90%)
Frostpunk blends city-building with moral dilemmas in a frozen, post-apocalyptic world. Every decision carries consequences, forcing players to balance survival, resources, and humanity under constant pressure.
Amnesia: The Bunker: $24.99 → $6.24 (-75%)
Amnesia: The Bunker reinvents the series with semi-open level design and emergent horror. Scarce resources, unpredictable threats, and player-driven problem solving create a constant sense of dread from start to finish.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits: $39.99 → $11.99 (-70%)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits combines charming visuals with satisfying action-adventure gameplay. Beneath its Pixar-like art style lies a surprisingly challenging combat system and an emotionally grounded story focused on loss, healing, and spiritual balance.
The Long Dark: $19.99 → $9.99 (-50%)
The Long Dark is a thoughtful survival experience set in the frozen wilderness after a geomagnetic disaster. With no zombies or monsters to rely on, the true enemy is the environment itself, creating a slow, tense, and deeply immersive struggle for survival.
Alan Wake: $14.99 → $1.49 (-90%)
Alan Wake blends psychological horror with narrative-driven action, following a writer trapped in a dark and unsettling mystery. Its episodic structure, eerie atmosphere, and light-based combat make it a cult classic worth revisiting.
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip: $3.99 → $1.99 (-50%)
We Were Here Expeditions: The FriendShip is a cooperative puzzle adventure built entirely around communication and teamwork. Short, focused challenges and clever puzzle design make it perfect for quick co-op sessions with a friend.
Sea of Thieves: $39.99 → $13.99 (-65%)
Sea of Thieves offers a shared-world pirate adventure where cooperation, exploration, and unpredictable player encounters define every session. Whether sailing with friends or braving the seas solo, each voyage tells its own emergent story.
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord: $49.99 → $24.99 (-50%)
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord delivers a massive medieval sandbox where diplomacy, warfare, and personal ambition collide. From leading armies into battle to managing kingdoms, it offers unmatched freedom in shaping your own rise to power.
Beyond: Two Souls: $19.99 → $1.99 (-90%)
Beyond: Two Souls is a cinematic, choice-driven narrative experience following a woman linked to a supernatural entity. Featuring strong performances and a non-linear structure, it emphasizes emotional storytelling over traditional gameplay.
Still Wakes the Deep: $34.99 → $8.74 (-75%)
Still Wakes the Deep is a first-person narrative horror experience set on an isolated offshore oil rig. With a strong focus on atmosphere, environmental storytelling, and creeping dread, it delivers a tightly paced, story-driven descent into fear rather than traditional combat-heavy horror.
Cyberpunk 2077: $59.99 → $20.99 (-65%)
Cyberpunk 2077 offers a vast open-world RPG set in the neon-drenched Night City, blending action, storytelling, and player choice. With its post-launch improvements and expansions, it now stands as a deep, content-rich experience packed with memorable characters and quests.
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition: $39.99 → $13.99 (-65%)
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition modernizes classic RTS gameplay while staying true to the series’ roots. Featuring historical campaigns, refined systems, and ongoing updates, it’s an excellent entry point for newcomers and longtime strategy fans alike.
No Man’s Sky: $59.99 → $23.99 (-60%)
No Man’s Sky is a vast space exploration sandbox built around discovery, base-building, and survival. Years of major updates have transformed it into a feature-rich experience, offering everything from planetary exploration to cooperative multiplayer and deep customization.
Pacific Drive: $29.99 → $11.99 (-60%)
Pacific Drive blends survival mechanics with a first-person driving experience in a mysterious, hostile exclusion zone. Managing your car, scavenging resources, and navigating supernatural threats creates a uniquely tense and immersive loop unlike typical survival games.
The Planet Crafter: $23.99 → $11.99 (-50%)
The Planet Crafter focuses on transforming a hostile planet into a livable world through exploration, crafting, and terraforming. Its slow-burn progression and relaxing gameplay loop make it especially appealing to fans of long-term survival and builder experiences.
Like a Dragon: Ishin!: $59.99 → $11.99 (-80%)
Like a Dragon: Ishin! transports the series’ signature storytelling and over-the-top combat into a historical samurai setting. Blending swordplay, side activities, and dramatic narrative moments, it offers a fresh but familiar experience for fans of the franchise.
Steam Winter Sale doesn’t last forever, and once the countdown hits zero, these discounts disappear with it. If there are games on this list you’ve been meaning to play or prices that look too good to pass up, now’s the moment to lock them into your library. Whether you’re planning your next long adventure or just stacking great games for later, these 40 picks are worth grabbing before the sale comes to an end.
Which games did you pick up during the Steam Winter Sale, and which ones are you still undecided about? Share your choices with us, and don’t forget to follow VGNW and X for more deals, recommendations, and gaming news.
