Steam Community
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
Steam Community is the social part of the Steam game store owned by Valve: game hubs with discussions, screenshots, artwork, guides, broadcasts and the Workshop, player profiles, groups and the item marketplace.
For marketing the platform is built in an unusual way. There is no ordinary advertising on it, and that is the official position: «Steam does not contain paid advertising, and ad models are not supported in games distributed through Steam». What is more, the rules of conduct forbid commercial activity by an ordinary user: the list of prohibitions includes posting advertisements, running contests, gambling, buying and selling Steam accounts, selling content and gift cards, and begging.
Hence the main point: Steam Community is not a platform for advertisers in general, but for game publishers and developers. All the working promotion tools are tied to a product in the catalogue and to the Steamworks cabinet; below we go through exactly that path.
Who's here
Valve discloses its audience sparingly. The "About Steam" page carries live counters: one snapshot read 36,284,754 people online and 11,876,474 playing right now. That is an instantaneous snapshot, not MAU or DAU. On the same page Valve writes about the community: «over 100 million potential friends (or enemies)» — a statement by the company.
An indirect reference point for geography is the Steamworks financial documentation, where the regions used for partner reporting are listed by name, from Africa and Eastern Europe to Oceania and Western Europe, with a full list of territories inside each.
The languages are stated precisely. The "full platform support" table lists the languages into which the client, the store and the community are translated; by our count it holds 31 entries, including Russian, Ukrainian, both variants of Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese, with the caveat that Arabic is available for games but the Steam interface is not translated into Arabic.
Getting started
A personal account is free, but it is not enough to promote a game. To get a product page and a community hub you have to go through Steam Direct: sign the documents, pay the fee, fill in banking and tax details and pass identity verification. The fee is stated directly: 100 US dollars for each product; it is non-refundable, but is credited towards a payout once the product has made at least 1,000 dollars of adjusted gross revenue, and it cannot be paid with Steam wallet funds.
Valve names openly the timings you need to build into a launch plan: review of the page and the build takes from 1 to 5 days; a 30-day waiting period applies between paying the fee and releasing the game; the "coming soon" page must be publicly visible for at least two weeks — this is time to start gathering an audience that will add the game to their wishlist and turn up in the discussions.
There is no need to create the community separately: every product has a hub of its own, and by default it opens as soon as the product's state is switched to "Coming Soon". A restriction that is easy to forget: announcements can be posted by an account in the publisher group with partner access to the product, or an admin or officer of the hub, and one that is not "limited"; the author of a post is shown publicly together with the avatar, name and comments of their profile.
What you can publish
The hub is split into tabs, and each is a separate format: "All" with the official announcements pinned at the top, "Discussions", "Screenshots", "Artwork" (concept art, cosplay, memes — the only requirement being that the content relates to the product), "Broadcasts", "Videos" with links to YouTube, "Workshop", "News", "Guides", "Reviews"; by default the tabs show the most popular content of the past week.
The publisher's own channel is events and announcements. Valve describes them as a tool needing no integration: «no integration with the game is required; the complexity of a post ranges from plain text to rich formatting with images, video and tables».
What is forbidden in the community is listed in the rules of conduct: illegal activity and creating a false identity; real or shocking images of violence; sexually explicit content (with the caveat that this does not ban in-game content in the game's own hub); doxing, fraud, impersonation; trolling, harassment, spam; artificial manipulation of Steam reviews; cheats; infringement of intellectual property rights; harvesting other people's addresses and sending out surveys, network-marketing material and chain letters.
How to grow
Followers and events
Following a game is the basic retention mechanism: the "Follow" button sits under the screenshots on the store page and at the top of the hub; once someone follows, your events and announcements land in that follower's activity feed and in their Steam News Hub; the number of followers is shown nowhere except the members page of the game group, and access to it requires signing in with a partner account.
A single announcement spreads across many surfaces at once: the last two announcements appear on the store page; announcements land in the hub feed and in the "News" tab, in the library on the game page and on the main screen, and in the activity feed of all followers; an announcement tagged "Workshop" is shown in the Workshop hub; for every game Steam automatically builds an RSS feed of the form https://steamcommunity.com/games/489830/rss. RSS is a simple bridge to scheduling.
There is a boosted display mode: on the "Visibility" tab you can switch on "Special featuring for big events", and the event is temporarily raised above the activity section for every user — only for major events and with sufficient gaps. The platform's advice on frequency is blunt: ideally one, at most two of your events should be visible on the library home at once — a pile of old posts tires players out and teaches them to ignore your content; access requires the "Edit App Marketing Data" permission; the "What's New" block is meant for content about the games in a player's library and is not a place to advertise other products or services.
Curators and cross-promotion
Steam Curators are reviewers with audiences of their own. The tool for a publisher: Curator Connect lets you search and filter the list of curators, write a personal message and send a copy of the game straight through Steam, without email and keys; the curator sees a preview of the game, the first three screenshots from the store page and your message.
Path to monetization
Steam Community does not pay by itself: there is no reward from the platform for posts, guides and screenshots. The money comes from product sales.
The payout terms are published: if last month's sales exceeded a threshold of 100 dollars, the payout goes out by electronic transfer — ACH for US banks and SWIFT in dollars for banks outside the US; payment comes 30 days after the sales, usually at the end of the month: February's sales at the end of March. Reporting has two levels: the Sales & Activations portal shows revenue, units, player numbers and geography almost in real time, but without deductions; the monthly report contains the deductions — refunds, chargebacks, taxes — reflects the amount you will receive, and exports to CSV.
The bank requirements are strict: the account holder's name must match the legal name given at registration, and a tax questionnaire is mandatory — for the US, details at the level of form W-9, and for countries with a tax treaty at the level of W-8BEN.
Tools and automation
Valve provides the Steam Web API so that website developers can use Steam data. The set of interfaces is modest: ISteamNews — news feeds for each game, ISteamUserStats — global statistics for a game, ISteamUser — data about users, ITFItems_440 — Team Fortress 2 items. Valve itself characterises it as a starting set and promises that the list will grow over time.
Technically: a key is required for any use and is issued via a form; calls take the form http://api.steampowered.com/<interface>/<method>/v<version>/, json, xml and vdf are supported, with json the default. Sign-in through Steam is available separately: Steam works as an OpenID provider at https://steamcommunity.com/openid, the Claimed ID returned contains a 64-bit SteamID, and asking for a Steam login and password on your own site breaches the API terms of use.
Limits and rules
- Advertising. There is no paid advertising; you may not reward a player for watching an ad or cover up gameplay with an ad; you may not take money from other developers for access to Steam pages.
- Commerce for the user. Advertising, contests, selling content and accounts, and begging are forbidden; manipulating reviews is named outright as a violation.
- Account. A "limited" account cannot create community groups or join them — and therefore cannot post announcements either.
- Money and timings. A 100-dollar fee per product, credited after 1,000 dollars of revenue; a payout threshold of 100 dollars, paid 30 days after the sales; review of 1–5 days, a 30-day wait, a "coming soon" page for at least two weeks.
- Country specifics. The documentation has separate sections on age ratings in Indonesia and Germany and on Steam China.
Who it's for
It suits game developers and publishers — and almost nobody else. If you have a product in the Steam catalogue, the hub, followers, events, RSS, curators and the Workshop give you a full set of retention and repeat-sales tools, free and without an advertising budget. It suits small teams: the entry threshold is 100 dollars and a month of waiting, not negotiations with the platform.
It does not suit brands outside the games industry: there are no advertising formats, and commercial activity by an ordinary user is forbidden by the rules. It does not suit those counting on quick reach by buying impressions: that option simply does not exist on Steam. It does not suit agencies used to performance metrics: the only official paid advertising is outside Steam, with UTM tagging and widgets.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself like this: «Community Hubs are collections of all the best community and official game content as rated by users.»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
at the time of the check the counters on the "About Steam" page showed 36,284,754 people online and 11,876,474 playing
A live counter, an instantaneous snapshot; not MAU and not DAU
source, checked 2026-07-28
Valve claims "over 100 million potential friends" in the community
A marketing statement by the company with no date and no counting method
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
a limited account can still post in discussions, but with conditions: «First, your account must have 60 minutes of playtime (free games count). Second, you must own the game in question if you are posting in a game's community hub. Finally, posting with a limited account is rate limited to only allow a small amount of posts per day»
the quotation is verbatim, the source language is English
source, checked 2026-08-07
review of the page and the build takes 1–5 days; a 30-day waiting period applies between paying the fee and release; the "coming soon" page must be publicly visible for at least two weeks
Steam Direct
source, checked 2026-07-28
Account and access
to trade on the community market: «The account must have a successful purchase older than 7 days, but not older than a year. Additionally, Steam Guard must be enabled for 15 days. Please note, redeeming a Steam gift does not grant access to the Community Market»
the quotation is verbatim, the source language is English. A separate article lists 14 further reasons for a trading ban — from a password reset (5 days, or 30 after two months of inactivity) to a new device (7 days): https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/451E-96B3-D194-50FC
source, checked 2026-08-07
«You may not become a Subscriber if you are under the age of 13. Steam is not intended for children under 13 and Valve will not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. Additional age restrictions may apply in your country»
the quotation is verbatim, the source language is English. Section 1 of the Steam Subscriber Agreement. Valve gives no figure of its own for individual countries here
source, checked 2026-08-07
a product's community hub opens automatically as soon as the product's state is switched to Coming Soon
Steamworks, Steam Community
source, checked 2026-07-28
Business terms
Valve advises publishers: do not reply to everything, let the community answer each other, do not argue with fans, do not censor, and communicate from an anonymous developer account where necessary
Community Moderation
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
the hub tabs: All, Discussions, Screenshots, Artwork, Broadcasting, Videos, Workshop, News, Guides, Reviews; by default they show the most popular content of the past week
Steamworks, Steam Community
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
an announcement spreads to the store pages (the last two), the hub feed and the News tab, the game page and the library home, followers' activity feeds, the Workshop hub when tagged Workshop, and the automatic RSS feed of the form https://steamcommunity.com/games/<appid>/rss
Events and Announcements Tools
source, checked 2026-07-28
announcements can be posted by an account in the publisher group with partner access, or by an admin or officer of the hub; the account must not be "limited"; the author of a post is shown publicly together with the avatar and name
Events and Announcements Tools
source, checked 2026-07-28
Valve recommends keeping one, at most two events visible on the library home; the Edit App Marketing Data permission is needed to access the visibility setting; the "What's New" block is not meant for advertising other products and services
Events and Announcements Visibility
source, checked 2026-07-28
following a game delivers announcements to the follower's activity feed and News Hub; the number of followers is visible only on the game group's members page and requires signing in with a partner account
Steamworks, Followers
source, checked 2026-07-28
Curator Connect lets you search and filter curators and send a copy of the game straight through Steam; the curator sees a preview of the game, the first three screenshots from the store page and the developer's message
Curators and Curator Connect
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
Valve states: Steam contains no paid advertising, and ad models are not supported in games on Steam
Steamworks, Advertising on Steam
source, checked 2026-07-28
bundles, sales and joint campaigns are allowed, including with brands outside Steam; charging other developers for taking part in a bundle or for access to Steam pages is forbidden
Steamworks, Advertising on Steam
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the community market's fee when an item is sold: «The fee is currently 5% (with a minimum fee of $0.01)»; it is paid by the buyer: «The buyer pays the Steam Transaction Fee»; on top of it the game's publisher takes its own — 10 % each for Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 2 and Artifact
the quotations are verbatim, the source language is English. Valve stipulates: «This fee may be increased or decreased in the future». The platform calls the publisher's fee somebody else's: «a game specific fee that is determined and collected by the game publisher»
source, checked 2026-08-07
money from sales inside the community cannot be withdrawn: «No. All Community Market sales and purchases are completed using the Steam Wallet. The funds cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another Steam account or to a bank/3rd party account. You may use the funds to purchase Steam gifts to send to other users»
the quotation is verbatim, the source language is English. The answer to «Can I withdraw or transfer funds from my Community Market sales/transactions?». The same place gives the wallet ceiling of 2000 dollars and the price ceiling of a single item of 1800 dollars
source, checked 2026-08-07
Steam pays the authors of paid Workshop items in money: «Steam handles purchase of the item, payment processing, payments to the authors, payments to the game developer, and any necessary tax withholding»
the quotation is verbatim, the source language is English. The author's share is set not by Valve but by the game's developer through «payment rules»: «This link establishes payment rules so that Steam knows which users to allocate the appropriate portion of revenue from each sale». There is no figure for the author's share on the open Steamworks pages
source, checked 2026-08-07
the payout threshold is 100 dollars for the previous month; payment goes via ACH for US banks and SWIFT in dollars outside the US; payment comes 30 days after the sales, usually at the end of the month
Reporting and Payments
source, checked 2026-07-28
the Sales & Activations portal shows revenue, units, player numbers and geography almost in real time, but without deductions; the monthly report contains the deductions and exports to CSV
Reporting and Payments
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
you cannot post in the community until 5 US dollars have been spent on the account: «we restrict access to certain community features until an account has spent at least $5.00 USD in Steam»; «You will need to spend at least $5.00 USD within the Steam store»
the quotations are verbatim, the source language is English. This is not a fee to the platform for publishing but a spending threshold in the Steam store. The list of features closed to a «limited» account expressly names: «Submitting content on the Steam Workshop», «Creating public Steam guides», «Adding public artwork and screenshots», «Posting hyperlinks in the Steam Community», «Making your Steam profile visible to non-friends», «Participating in the Steam Market», «Accessing the Steam Web API»
source, checked 2026-08-07
not every kind of spending closes the 5-dollar threshold: «The following actions will not remove limited user restrictions: Activating a retail game on Steam; Playing free demos; ... Spending funds from items you have sold on the market; ... Free to Play games»; a gift does not count either: «games that have been received as a gift or via Steam Trading are not eligible»
the quotations are verbatim, the source language is English. If money is refunded to a bank account the sum is deducted and access is lost; a refund to the Steam Wallet does not take access away
source, checked 2026-08-07
the Steam Direct fee is 100 US dollars for each product; non-refundable, credited towards a payout once the product has made at least 1,000 dollars of adjusted gross revenue; it cannot be paid with Steam wallet funds
Steam Direct Fee
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
the rules of conduct forbid commercial activity by a user: advertising, contests, gambling, buying and selling accounts, selling content and gift cards, begging
Steam Online Conduct
source, checked 2026-07-28
artificial manipulation of Steam reviews is named outright as a breach of the rules of conduct
Steam Online Conduct
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
the Steam Web API includes ISteamNews, ISteamUserStats, ISteamUser and ITFItems_440; a key is required, and the response formats are json, xml, vdf (json by default)
Valve itself calls the set a starting one
source, checked 2026-07-28
Steam works as an OpenID provider at https://steamcommunity.com/openid; the Claimed ID returned contains a 64-bit SteamID; asking for a Steam login and password on your own site breaches the API terms
Steam Web API Documentation
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: en
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
the full platform support table (client, store, community) contains 31 entries, including Russian, Ukrainian, both variants of Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese; Arabic is available for games, but the Steam interface is not translated into it
The number of entries is our count from the published table
source, checked 2026-07-28
Catalogue section: all similar See also: catalogue index · region: USA and Canada · scheduler comparison · find by situation · platform restrictions