Valve overhauls Steam demos to act more like full games, complete with user reviews and chart positions

Steam has made changes to how it handles game demos, including separate store pages for demos, user reviews for demos, and the ability to add a demo to your Steam library without installing it.

The ‘Great Steam Demo Update, 2024,’ as it’s being dubbed by Valve, was announced in a Steam post. Valve says it’s making these changes off the back of repeated trends in feedback from developers surrounding demos, so the changes are what the majority of developers apparently want made.

There will now be separate Steam store pages for game demos, and you can leave a user review pertaining only to a game’s demo and not the overall game itself. Developers need to manually enable this for their game demos, however, so it isn’t turned on by default and can be disabled. 

Valve also claims this will improve game demo visibility in the Steam store. They’ll now behave more like actual games, appearing in the ‘New & Trending’ chart and the ‘New on Steam’ page, as well as on relevant category and tag pages on the wider Steam store.

Anyone who wishlists a game will be immediately notified when a demo for said game launches on Steam. This should actually really help developers – indie devs especially talk up wishlists as helping in publisher negotiations, and if you can immediately put a demo in front of everyone who wishlisted your game, it’s all the better.

Finally, you’ll be able to add a game demo to your Steam library without having to instantly install it. As it previously stood, game demos would immediately vanish from your Steam library for good the second you uninstalled them, so this should be a helpful reminder that you’ve still got access to a demo you previously uninstalled.

Weirdly, these changes have come about roughly a month after the Steam Next Fest concluded in mid-June. You’d think these changes would’ve been pushed out when game demos are front and center for Steam users and developers, but that’s apparently not the case.

Check out our best free Steam games guide if you want to zip up the wallet and still have a great time.