Valve is changing Steam Sales

They are replacing the manually scheduled deal calendar in the Discounts and Events section with a dynamic, personalized recommendation algorithm.

Currently, Steam sees hundreds of new releases every week, leaving the top 1% of titles to capture roughly 85% of total revenue while middle tier games struggle for visibility.

Previously, developers had to rely on Valve staff to manually select and feature their discounted games in front page sale slots. Under the new system, Steam uses player data and playtimes to surface relevant active discounts tailored to each user. In early tests, Valve reported showing ten times more games to gamers daily, driving significant increases in store page visits, wishlists, and sales additions.

While Valve works to fix back catalog visibility on their storefront, algorithms still depend on existing momentum and player interest signals. This is where platforms like WhatALaunch tackle discoverability from a different angle.

Instead of ranking games strictly by raw revenue or lifetime popularity, tools like our "Top Games This Week" rank games based on follower growth. By measuring real time community traction rather than just sales volume, upcoming and newly released indie titles get an early chance to stand out.

Valve's move toward automated personalization proves that long term discoverability can no longer rely on launch hype.

We will see how this will be moving forward but so far it is looking to be an interesting way to discover new games.

Kind regards,

Gabe

Sources:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/676258795703240952?hl=en-US

https://gamediscover.co/?hl=en-US