How to Advertise Your Game on Steam

Why wishlists come first

On Steam, a wishlist is a promise of future attention. When your game launches or goes on sale, Steam notifies the players who wishlisted it, so every wishlist you collect before launch is someone who will hear about your release on day one.

That is why almost every way to advertise a game on Steam aims at the same few numbers: wishlists, followers and, once you have a demo or a release, players. Track them from the start. Steamworks shows your wishlists over time, and its UTM analytics tell you which links brought visitors to your store page.

1. Start with your Steam store page

Every channel below sends people to your store page, so fix it before you spend anything on traffic. A weak page wastes every visitor you pay or work for.

• Capsule art that reads at thumbnail size and shows the genre at a glance.
• A trailer that shows gameplay in the first seconds, not logos.
• Screenshots of real play, ordered from strongest to weakest.
• A short description that says what the player does, not just the story.
• Accurate tags, so Steam shows your game to players who like similar games.

Cost: free. Effort: a few days. Best for: every game, before anything else.

2. Use Steam's own events

Steam itself is one of the strongest places to advertise your game, and its events cost nothing to join.

• Steam Next Fest runs three times a year, in February, June and October. It is open to unreleased games with a playable demo, and each game can take part only once, so plan it for the moment your demo is at its best. See Valve's Next Fest documentation.
• Themed sale events group games by genre or theme. Joining the right one puts your page in front of players who are already browsing that kind of game.
• A demo or a Steam Playtest lets players try the game early, collects feedback and gives you something concrete to promote everywhere else.

Cost: free. Effort: medium, a good demo takes time. Best for: games with a playable build.

3. Content creators and streamers

YouTube videos and Twitch or TikTok streams show your game being played, which convinces players better than any ad. Smaller creators who cover your genre often respond more than big names and have more engaged audiences.

• Make a short list of creators who already play games like yours.
• Send a personal message with a key, your trailer and one line on why your game fits their channel.
• Follow up once, and thank everyone who covers the game.

Cost: free keys, or a fee for sponsored videos. Effort: high, it is mostly outreach. Best for: games that are fun to watch.

4. Press and showcases

Coverage from gaming sites and a spot in a digital showcase can bring a burst of wishlists in a single day. Both are hard to get without a clear hook.

• Prepare a press kit: description, trailer, screenshots, logo and contact.
• Pitch news, not just "my game exists": an announcement, a demo, a release date.
• Apply to showcases that match your genre, often months ahead of the show.

Cost: free to low. Effort: medium. Best for: announcements, demos and launches.

5. Communities and social media

Reddit, X, TikTok, Bluesky and your own Discord server let you build an audience that follows the game over months. Short clips of real gameplay usually work better than polished marketing images.

• Read each community's rules first, many limit self-promotion.
• Share progress and ask for feedback instead of only posting links.
• Put your Steam link everywhere, and use UTM links so you can see what works.

Cost: free. Effort: ongoing. Best for: building fans over a long development.

6. Paid ads

Ads on platforms like Reddit, Meta, TikTok, YouTube or Google can send traffic to your store page on demand. They are easy to start and easy to overspend on.

• Start with a small budget and one clear goal, usually wishlists.
• Use Steam's UTM links to measure how many visits each campaign brings.
• Stop campaigns that do not turn visits into wishlists, and scale the ones that do.

Cost: whatever you spend, results vary a lot by genre. Effort: medium. Best for: games with a proven store page and a budget.

7. Reward platforms

Reward platforms put your game in front of a large audience of Steam players who wishlist, follow or play it to unlock a Steam key. You choose the tasks and the size of the campaign, which makes the results predictable and easy to measure.

The honest trade-off: these players act because of the reward, so a reward platform works best next to the channels above, not instead of them. Quality also differs between platforms. Ask whether completed tasks are checked again later and what happens to players who undo them.

We run two of these platforms ourselves, OPQuests and KeyJoker, with 130K+ registered Steam players. Every task is re-checked, and 97.2% of re-checked wishlists on OPQuests were still in place. You do not need to give away keys for your own game; we can source keys for other games as the reward.

Cost: from $499 for a one-week campaign. Effort: low, we build and run the campaign. Best for: growing wishlists and followers at a chosen moment, such as before Next Fest or launch. See our case studies.

Which channel to pick

Most successful launches combine several channels. If you have little time, start with the free ones on Steam, then add one channel you can keep up, and use paid options to push at the moments that matter most.

When to advertise

1. Announcement: put your store page live as early as you can, so wishlists start counting.
2. Development: share progress in communities and collect followers.
3. Demo: reach out to creators and press, and plan your Next Fest.
4. Weeks before launch: push wishlists hard, this is when every one counts most.
5. Launch and sales: Steam notifies your wishlisters, so keep promoting during launch week and your first discounts.