Fans call Steam Summer Sale 2025 ‘mid’ but there’s a reason it seems so bad

This year’s Steam summer sale has got PC owners upset at its lack of decent deals, but it is good if you haven’t played all the Fallout games.

If you have a Steam account, chances are you’ve already perused the annual summer sale, that’s been running since June 26.

The sale is scheduled to end on July 10, so you still have another week to look for new PC games to add to your backlog; some of which are seeing discounts upwards of 90%.

However, there’s a perception among the Steam community that this year’s sale is disappointingly ‘mid’ or just straight up bad.

Over on the Steam subreddit, a popular thread titled ‘Worse than Spring Sale’ is full of people complaining about the lack of big discounts, especially for major releases.

‘The annoying part is some games having the exact same discount for years. Like bro, your game has six years, I think you can drop below 50% already,’ complains Ryuko50.

‘Steam sales ain’t what they used to be, that’s for sure,’ says Far_Inspection4706, ‘Back in the day I remember major titles getting up to like 90% off. Now it’s like even with the sales almost none of the major titles are any cheaper than $20 – 40 still.’

They add that when some games cost upwards of $70 (usually £60), discounts of 20% don’t make them feel that much cheaper.

This can be seen in examples like Monster Hunter Wilds and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, both of which launched earlier this year. In the UK, they’re normally £60 but are currently discounted by 20%. However, that still means they cost £47.99 and £44.99, respectively.

Similar complaints can be found in this thread on the PC Gaming subreddit, with the top comment by Eat–The–Rich– also decrying the discounted prices: ‘There are so many 5+ year old games on ‘sale’ for $45+.’

Others, like SenseiRaheem, are confused about some games being omitted from the sale entirely. Both The Last Of Us games, for instance, are still at full price, although other Sony published games, like God Of War: Ragnarök and Spider-Man 2, are discounted.

So, is this a sign that Steam sales are progressively getting worse? Some Redditors argue that they’ve been dropping in quality for years, but there are other external factors to consider.

As suggested by SgtRicko, the people complaining are probably long time Steam users who already have massive backlogs and have grabbed a lot of big name games through previous sales: ‘Everybody’s already got a huge Steam backlog and have been through several sales before, so it’s no longer as novel and exciting.’

A quick glance shows a number of games that are shockingly cheap, such as Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Alien Isolation, and Borderlands 3, which are priced at £5.99, £8.74, and £2.49 each. These are bona fide steals, but chances are a lot of people already added them to their backlogs during previous sales.

There’s also inflation. Games have progressively become more expensive, so when they get discounted, they’re going down to the prices that older players have become nostalgic for.

Metaphor: ReFantazio, for example, is usually £59.99, but its 40% discount brings it down to £35.99. An arguably good deal, but that’s how much major game releases used to cost roughly a decade ago. So, if you’ve been using Steam and enjoying its regular sales periods for as long, today’s discounts aren’t going to look as appealing.

Ultimately, these discounts are aiming for people who are new to Steam and don’t already have massive backlogs. If you fit that category, we can highly recommend investing in the Fallout games since you can get the entire series for less than £30.

With the discounts, here’s how each of the game’s currently costs:

• Fallout 1 – £1.99
• Fallout 2 – £1.99
• Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood Of Steel – £1.99
• Fallout 3: Game Of The Year Edition – £5.27
• Fallout New Vegas Ultimate – £6.39
• Fallout 4 – £6.39
• Fallout 76 – £8.74

There is also a Steam bundle that throws in the Fallout 4 season pass and a deluxe edition of Fallout 76, but that’s more expensive at £68.15 (though still discounted by 43%). You can use the bundle link to purchase each game individually if you want to stick to below £30.

If you want to see more of what the Steam summer sale has to offer, you can start with its home page, which features its top deals.

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