Overview

The Steam Events Team often helps other companies and organizations bring their third-party events to Steam.

Your games may even be invited to participate in these third-party events by the event organizers. If so, participation can be great opportunity to get your games in front of new audiences and bring new awareness to your titles. Here are just a few examples of how your games may be featured in third-party events on Steam:

Tacticon (a themed event):	The Game Awards (a showcase event):	Games in Sweden (a regional event):

How it Works

An event organizer may approach you to ask if your game would be interested in joining its event, or you may seek out event organizers yourself to ask if your game can be invited to their event. In either case, once you're game's been invited, here are the next steps involved:

1. Decide if You Want to Participate

Events come in many shapes and sizes. Some only exist on Steam but others have a much larger presence, for example via an award show, a convention hall, or a global broadcast. Participating in these events is entirely up to you, so be sure the event fits your game's product or marketing strategy before confirming your participation. You may direct any questions you have about the event itself to the event organizer, and, if you choose to join, let them know so they can add your game to their event. Once they've done so, you should see their event name and the organizer's contact info appear in your Steamworks dashboard.

2. Set Your Discount (Optional)

Consider whether you'd like your game to be on discount during the event. This can be a good idea since events can often bring extra visibility to your game. If interested, you may set up your own discount event that includes some or all of the dates of the event, or, for your convenience, the event organizer may be able to share a (purely optional) custom discount event that will appear directly in your Discount Management Tool. Keep in mind that third party sales events are not exempt from Steam's typical 30-day discount cooldown, so be sure to plan out your discount participation accordingly. Also keep in mind that a discount is not required to join an event, but it may affect featuring decisions, so be sure to ask your event organizer for details.

3. Prepare for the Event

You may have a few additional things to do leading up to the event, depending on the scope of the third-party event and how your game will be featured in it. For example, the event organizer may ask you to prepare a pre-recorded bit of gameplay for a segment of their livestream. The event organizer will have more specific information if anything is required during this phase.

4. Participate in the Event

Once the event begins, your game will be featured on the event's sale page as discussed with the event organizer. While the event is live, the event's Store Page banner will also appear at the top of your game's Store Page. If you have any questions or concern about this, please reach out to the event organizer ahead of time.

5. Check Performance After the Event (Optional)

After the event, it's a good idea to check your Sales & Activation report to see how your game's sales performed during the event. You can also find Steam traffic generated from the event in Store & Steam Traffic Platform Breakdown. This traffic will appear under a line item called 'Sales Page.'

Event Visibility for Participants

Off-Steam Visibility

Your event organizer should have more details about how they plan to feature or market their event off of Steam. They may ask for your help getting the word out, for example by sharing news of your participation at the start of the event via a social media post. Be sure to reach out to the event organizer for additional details.

On-Steam Visibility

All third-party events on Steam benefit from some automatic visibility on the Store. A select few may even qualify for curated featuring on the Store in promotional placements such as Takeunders or Daily, Midweek and Weekend Deals. This is covered in greater detail in Event Visibility on Steam. If an event is chosen for curated featuring on the Store, the Steam Events Team will let the event organizer know who can then share the information with their participants. The Steam Events Team can't share featuring details with anyone other than the event organizer.

Visibility Within the Sale Page

The event organizer is responsible for the merchandising and organization of the event's sale page, and will be your point of contact if you have questions about the location of your game within the event.

FAQ

Q: Is there a limit to the number of Sales Events my game can participate in?

A: For the most part, your games can participate in as many Sales Events as you would like, but there are a few limitations:
• You should be aware of Steam's 30-day discount cooldown for any games that will be joining an event on discount.
  
• A game can only be included in at most one featured Publisher/Developer Sale and one featured Franchise sales per calendar year (see Rules 12 & 13 in the Event Rules).

• Q: How can I know more about upcoming events?

  A: Steam does not have a calendar of upcoming events organized by 3rd parties. We recommend reaching out to your local game developer association and any genre-related groups to stay up to date on any plans they may have. Events organized by Steam can be found on the Upcoming Events page
  
  

• Q: I’m being asked to pay money to appear on a Steam sale page – is this okay?

  A: No, event organizers are not allowed to charge for store placement on a Steam Sales Event. Please reach out to us if an organizer is asking for payment. However, organizers are allowed to charge for other event-related benefits, like booth space at a convention center or a segment on a global livestream.
  
  

• Q: The event is live right now and my title doesn’t appear on the sale page where it should!

  A: Please reach out to the event organizer, as they are responsible for where games show up on their event pages. Once your game has been added to a sale page, the contact info for the event organizer should appear in your Steamworks dashboard. If your primary contact for the event isn't available, other people in that contact info link may be able to help.
  
  

• Q: There is a third party event that's live right now that I think I qualify for, how can I be added?

  A: Please reach out to the event organizer.

Have Questions?

https://help.steampowered.com/en/wizard/HelpWithPublishing?issueid=927