The Steam sale superstars you should never buy for full price
The next Steam sale is imminent, and an unfortunate few will be cursing themselves when it arrives while the rest of us revel in price reductions. Buy enough Steam games, and it'll happen to you eventually: you'll shell out for a game's full listing price, just to watch it go on sale within a week. It's not your fault. You just knew you needed the dogfight melodrama of Ace Combat provides right then. How could you know you were only days away from getting it at half price? Fate can be cruel. Luckily, I'm here to be kind.
To spare you some buyer's remorse, I've built a list of great games with near-constant discounts—classics you should by all means buy, but by no means buy at full price. If one of the games below is tempting you between sales, stay strong. Keep your cursor off the checkout button. They might be sitting at listing price while you're reading this, but none of them will be for long.
While you're putting your wishlist together, be sure to check our upcoming Steam sale schedule so you don't miss any savings.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Base price: $39.99 / £24.99 | Lowest price: $7.99 / £4.99 (-80%) | Steam
Witchers don't come cheap. I can't blame them; my rates would be pretty high if disembowelment was a daily workplace hazard. Still, if you're in need of Geralts at a good price, you're in luck. Aside from February and May 2023, the Witcher 3 has gotten discounts of 70% or more during every month in the last year. You might as well grab the expansion packs while you're at it: The Witcher 3 Complete Edition, which includes both, usually gets a matching discount for only a few more bucks during sales, dropping as low as $9.99.
Deep Rock Galactic
Base price: $29.99 /£24.99 | Lowest price: $9.89 / £8.24 (-67%) | Steam
In Deep Rock Galactic, you and your fellow space dwarf miners are disposable parts in the ruthless profit extraction engine of your corporate employers. So it's only right that you can pick up the beloved co-op cave shooter for a steal. Since its 1.0 release, Deep Rock's offered all its space beards and bug shooting at half-price or less in every seasonal sale, with a few bonus sales on the side. Think of the discount as a sort of retroactive hazard pay, maybe.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Base price: $19.99 / £16.49 | Lowest price: $3.74 / £2.24 (-85%) | Steam
If you're not already into video game trucking, let me pull the veil from your eyes. Think about how many games are just moving something from one place to another. Sometimes it's a ball, or a guy holding a ball, or a health bar on a guy. But whatever it is, it's just taking something from here, to there. It's trucking with extra steps. They've played us for absolute fools.
It's time to stop pretending. With Euro Truck Sim 2 almost always on sale, there's no excuse anymore. For less than four dollars, you can't afford not to embrace trucking. In many ways, you already have. Oh, and if you want extra trucking regions once you've gone sicko mode, the normally pricey Map Booster pack is like 25 bucks when it's on sale.
Fallout: New Vegas
Base price: $9.99 / £8.99 | Lowest price: $2.49 / £1.99 (-75%) | Steam
Of the modern Fallouts, New Vegas has maybe weathered the test of time best. Compared to the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth, the Mojave holds a dearer place in many hearts. It's a little rougher around the edges, but Obsidian gives New Vegas a greater depth to its quests and characters. And it helps that you can grab it during Steam seasonal sales for around the cost of a gas station coffee. When the time comes, I'd recommend picking up New Vegas Ultimate, which includes every bit of DLC like the excellent Old World Blues and Lonesome Road expansions. During sales, it's been available for as low as $4.99.
Hunt: Showdown
Base price: $39.99 / £35.99 | Lowest price: $15.99 / £14.39 (-60%) | Steam
Crytek's PvPvE monster hunt is much-loved by PC Gamer staff as a better kind of battle royale. Some might call it quietly underrated, but the extraction shooter is in no way underserved by its reliable sales. The base game's gotten near-monthly discounts, with price cuts as high as 60%. Leaves you some leftover cash for one of its many microtransactions, if you want to start with extra tools for stalking beasts in the bayou.
Monster Hunter: World
Base price: $29.99 / £24.99 | Lowest price: $14.99 / £12.49 (-50%) | Steam
If you're looking for an entry point into the gold standard for swordfights with dinosaurs, Monster Hunter: World will get you the most bang for your buck. Regularly dropping to half price, it's a bit cheaper than the newer Monster Hunter: Rise, and the monsters and environments are more fully realized than you'll find in Rise. Adds some extra immersion when you're trying to deliver a hammer uppercut to a t-rex. When sales hit, expect the Master Edition bundle to hit half-off as well at around $30, getting you both the base game and the Iceborne expansion.
Hitman: World of Assassination
Base price: $69.99 / £58.50 | Lowest price: $34.99 / £17.49 (-50%) | Steam
It's a hunt for a wealthier kind of monster in Hitman, and if you ask me, paying a much lower price for the privilege makes it a little bit poetic. A poetry written in thrown cans of pasta sauce. The mess of access passes in the bundle makes it look unnecessarily complicated, but what you'll get is the game formerly known as Hitman 3, along with all the targets and locales from Hitman 1 and 2, plus the new Freelancer roguelike mode. During sales, it's three games worth of Hitman antics, for half the price of what a new game would run you.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Base price: $59.99 / £59.99 | Lowest price: $19.79 / £18.14 (-67%) | Steam
I'm told there's more gameplay in Red Dead Redemption 2 than just collecting, brushing, and generally admiring all the horses of the American West, but I'm not sure why you'd need it. Still, if cowboy shootin'—and the associated rootin' and tootin'—is up your alley, you've got good odds at saving yourself a fistful of dollars. For the last year and a half, Red Dead Redemption 2 has had near-monthly drops in price of 50% or more, meaning open world moseying for less than twenty bucks is at most a couple weeks away.
Disco Elysium
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Perhaps the finest detective RPG/disaster man simulator the world has ever known, Disco Elysium is an all-timer. It's mostly text, it's got a whole mess of political navel-gazing, you spend half the game not knowing where your service firearm is, and anyone who wants it to be anything else is a coward. During its frequent discounts, you can grab it for around $10.
XCOM 2
Base price: $59.99 / £17.36 | Lowest price: $5.99 / £2.10 (-90%) | Steam
XCOM 2 remains one of the best games for investing yourself in a hand-picked, hand-crafted corps of elite units, only to watch in dismay as one of them gets mind-controlled by an alien and annihilates their medic and best friend with an unlucky shotgun crit. A delight at any price, basically a miracle at less than $10. It's worth considering the XCOM 2 Collection while you're at it, which includes the base game and the basically mandatory War of the Chosen expansion, alongside some smaller DLC.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Base price: $44.99 / £29.99 | Lowest price: $15.74 / £10.49 (-65%) | Steam
We're nearing the release of Baldur's Gate 3, but that shouldn't stop you from grabbing Larian's last hit for a low price. Original Sin 2 has had its price cut by 60% or more at every major seasonal sale since 2020, with additional price cuts along the way. If you can't manage waiting until August for a CRPG fix, at least do yourself the kindness of waiting for a Divinity discount.
Battletech
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Since you're here, I'm assuming you're a discerning customer. And if you're a discerning customer, I'm assuming you'd be interested in a mech tactics game. We live in a fortunate world: not only is Battletech a great game of MechWarrior management, it also hits every seasonal sale at $10. If you've already Battleteched, check in on the expansion packs. They don't add quite enough to be worth the full pricetag, but like the base game they drop to $10 during sales.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Base price: $29.99 / £23.79 | Lowest price: $0.00 (-100%) | Steam
I don't know how many ratmen I've mulched with a dwarven maul in Vermintide, but I know that each one was an invaluable moment of co-op melee camaraderie. That being said, I'd recommend holding off on shelling out the thirty dollar asking price. Just as I've hacked my way through hordes of Skaven, so has Fatshark been lopping chunks off the Vermintide 2 pricetag with dozens of discounts to below $10 in the last two years, including a four-day window where it was free-to-keep. You might've missed the window on completely free, but dirt cheap is a guaranteed repeat.
Arma 3
Base price: $29.99 / £23.99 | Lowest price: $5.99 / £4.79 (-80%) | Steam
Arma 3 is just about the biggest military toybox anyone's ever piled together. If you've got an Arma friend, I'm sure you're already aware, because you've probably seen them disappear into a complex, multi-front military simulation cobbled from half-a-dozen bespoke mod packages. That level of engagement has some barriers to entry, but cost doesn't need to be one of them. If there's a seasonal sale coming up, Arma will be there, and it'll be there for cheap.
Control
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Control is a head-on collision of surreality and bureaucratic brutalism, with an aftermath that's gorgeous to look at. From the visuals, to the acting, to the in-game puppet show, it's a game that nails its vibe and refuses to stop. A must-get on sale, even if it's just because you're looking forward to Alan Wake 2 and don't want to miss any potential Remedyverse easter eggs. At $10, I'm tempted to buy it a second time just to read all the redacted documents again.
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The next Steam sale is imminent, and an unfortunate few will be cursing themselves when it arrives while the rest of us revel in price reductions. Buy enough Steam games, and it'll happen to you eventually: you'll shell out for a game's full listing price, just to watch it go on sale within a week. It's not your fault. You just knew you needed the dogfight melodrama of Ace Combat provides right then. How could you know you were only days away from getting it at half price? Fate can be cruel. Luckily, I'm here to be kind.
To spare you some buyer's remorse, I've built a list of great games with near-constant discounts—classics you should by all means buy, but by no means buy at full price. If one of the games below is tempting you between sales, stay strong. Keep your cursor off the checkout button. They might be sitting at listing price while you're reading this, but none of them will be for long.
While you're putting your wishlist together, be sure to check our upcoming Steam sale schedule so you don't miss any savings.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Base price: $39.99 / £24.99 | Lowest price: $7.99 / £4.99 (-80%) | Steam
Witchers don't come cheap. I can't blame them; my rates would be pretty high if disembowelment was a daily workplace hazard. Still, if you're in need of Geralts at a good price, you're in luck. Aside from February and May 2023, the Witcher 3 has gotten discounts of 70% or more during every month in the last year. You might as well grab the expansion packs while you're at it: The Witcher 3 Complete Edition, which includes both, usually gets a matching discount for only a few more bucks during sales, dropping as low as $9.99.
Deep Rock Galactic
Base price: $29.99 /£24.99 | Lowest price: $9.89 / £8.24 (-67%) | Steam
In Deep Rock Galactic, you and your fellow space dwarf miners are disposable parts in the ruthless profit extraction engine of your corporate employers. So it's only right that you can pick up the beloved co-op cave shooter for a steal. Since its 1.0 release, Deep Rock's offered all its space beards and bug shooting at half-price or less in every seasonal sale, with a few bonus sales on the side. Think of the discount as a sort of retroactive hazard pay, maybe.
Euro Truck Simulator 2
Base price: $19.99 / £16.49 | Lowest price: $3.74 / £2.24 (-85%) | Steam
If you're not already into video game trucking, let me pull the veil from your eyes. Think about how many games are just moving something from one place to another. Sometimes it's a ball, or a guy holding a ball, or a health bar on a guy. But whatever it is, it's just taking something from here, to there. It's trucking with extra steps. They've played us for absolute fools.
It's time to stop pretending. With Euro Truck Sim 2 almost always on sale, there's no excuse anymore. For less than four dollars, you can't afford not to embrace trucking. In many ways, you already have. Oh, and if you want extra trucking regions once you've gone sicko mode, the normally pricey Map Booster pack is like 25 bucks when it's on sale.
Fallout: New Vegas
Base price: $9.99 / £8.99 | Lowest price: $2.49 / £1.99 (-75%) | Steam
Of the modern Fallouts, New Vegas has maybe weathered the test of time best. Compared to the Capital Wasteland and the Commonwealth, the Mojave holds a dearer place in many hearts. It's a little rougher around the edges, but Obsidian gives New Vegas a greater depth to its quests and characters. And it helps that you can grab it during Steam seasonal sales for around the cost of a gas station coffee. When the time comes, I'd recommend picking up New Vegas Ultimate, which includes every bit of DLC like the excellent Old World Blues and Lonesome Road expansions. During sales, it's been available for as low as $4.99.
Hunt: Showdown
Base price: $39.99 / £35.99 | Lowest price: $15.99 / £14.39 (-60%) | Steam
Crytek's PvPvE monster hunt is much-loved by PC Gamer staff as a better kind of battle royale. Some might call it quietly underrated, but the extraction shooter is in no way underserved by its reliable sales. The base game's gotten near-monthly discounts, with price cuts as high as 60%. Leaves you some leftover cash for one of its many microtransactions, if you want to start with extra tools for stalking beasts in the bayou.
Monster Hunter: World
Base price: $29.99 / £24.99 | Lowest price: $14.99 / £12.49 (-50%) | Steam
If you're looking for an entry point into the gold standard for swordfights with dinosaurs, Monster Hunter: World will get you the most bang for your buck. Regularly dropping to half price, it's a bit cheaper than the newer Monster Hunter: Rise, and the monsters and environments are more fully realized than you'll find in Rise. Adds some extra immersion when you're trying to deliver a hammer uppercut to a t-rex. When sales hit, expect the Master Edition bundle to hit half-off as well at around $30, getting you both the base game and the Iceborne expansion.
Hitman: World of Assassination
Base price: $69.99 / £58.50 | Lowest price: $34.99 / £17.49 (-50%) | Steam
It's a hunt for a wealthier kind of monster in Hitman, and if you ask me, paying a much lower price for the privilege makes it a little bit poetic. A poetry written in thrown cans of pasta sauce. The mess of access passes in the bundle makes it look unnecessarily complicated, but what you'll get is the game formerly known as Hitman 3, along with all the targets and locales from Hitman 1 and 2, plus the new Freelancer roguelike mode. During sales, it's three games worth of Hitman antics, for half the price of what a new game would run you.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Base price: $59.99 / £59.99 | Lowest price: $19.79 / £18.14 (-67%) | Steam
I'm told there's more gameplay in Red Dead Redemption 2 than just collecting, brushing, and generally admiring all the horses of the American West, but I'm not sure why you'd need it. Still, if cowboy shootin'—and the associated rootin' and tootin'—is up your alley, you've got good odds at saving yourself a fistful of dollars. For the last year and a half, Red Dead Redemption 2 has had near-monthly drops in price of 50% or more, meaning open world moseying for less than twenty bucks is at most a couple weeks away.
Disco Elysium
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Perhaps the finest detective RPG/disaster man simulator the world has ever known, Disco Elysium is an all-timer. It's mostly text, it's got a whole mess of political navel-gazing, you spend half the game not knowing where your service firearm is, and anyone who wants it to be anything else is a coward. During its frequent discounts, you can grab it for around $10.
XCOM 2
Base price: $59.99 / £17.36 | Lowest price: $5.99 / £2.10 (-90%) | Steam
XCOM 2 remains one of the best games for investing yourself in a hand-picked, hand-crafted corps of elite units, only to watch in dismay as one of them gets mind-controlled by an alien and annihilates their medic and best friend with an unlucky shotgun crit. A delight at any price, basically a miracle at less than $10. It's worth considering the XCOM 2 Collection while you're at it, which includes the base game and the basically mandatory War of the Chosen expansion, alongside some smaller DLC.
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Base price: $44.99 / £29.99 | Lowest price: $15.74 / £10.49 (-65%) | Steam
We're nearing the release of Baldur's Gate 3, but that shouldn't stop you from grabbing Larian's last hit for a low price. Original Sin 2 has had its price cut by 60% or more at every major seasonal sale since 2020, with additional price cuts along the way. If you can't manage waiting until August for a CRPG fix, at least do yourself the kindness of waiting for a Divinity discount.
Battletech
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Since you're here, I'm assuming you're a discerning customer. And if you're a discerning customer, I'm assuming you'd be interested in a mech tactics game. We live in a fortunate world: not only is Battletech a great game of MechWarrior management, it also hits every seasonal sale at $10. If you've already Battleteched, check in on the expansion packs. They don't add quite enough to be worth the full pricetag, but like the base game they drop to $10 during sales.
Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Base price: $29.99 / £23.79 | Lowest price: $0.00 (-100%) | Steam
I don't know how many ratmen I've mulched with a dwarven maul in Vermintide, but I know that each one was an invaluable moment of co-op melee camaraderie. That being said, I'd recommend holding off on shelling out the thirty dollar asking price. Just as I've hacked my way through hordes of Skaven, so has Fatshark been lopping chunks off the Vermintide 2 pricetag with dozens of discounts to below $10 in the last two years, including a four-day window where it was free-to-keep. You might've missed the window on completely free, but dirt cheap is a guaranteed repeat.
Arma 3
Base price: $29.99 / £23.99 | Lowest price: $5.99 / £4.79 (-80%) | Steam
Arma 3 is just about the biggest military toybox anyone's ever piled together. If you've got an Arma friend, I'm sure you're already aware, because you've probably seen them disappear into a complex, multi-front military simulation cobbled from half-a-dozen bespoke mod packages. That level of engagement has some barriers to entry, but cost doesn't need to be one of them. If there's a seasonal sale coming up, Arma will be there, and it'll be there for cheap.
Control
Base price: $39.99 / £34.99 | Lowest price: $9.99 / £8.74 (-75%) | Steam
Control is a head-on collision of surreality and bureaucratic brutalism, with an aftermath that's gorgeous to look at. From the visuals, to the acting, to the in-game puppet show, it's a game that nails its vibe and refuses to stop. A must-get on sale, even if it's just because you're looking forward to Alan Wake 2 and don't want to miss any potential Remedyverse easter eggs. At $10, I'm tempted to buy it a second time just to read all the redacted documents again.
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