After years of running awkwardly close to the Winter Sale, the Steam Autumn Sale will start 2 months early this year

Valve has announced the full roster of Steam sale dates and Next Fests for the second half of 2025, and it’s made one big change: This year’s Steam Autumn Sale is going to kick off nearly two full months earlier than it has in past years.

In practical terms, the advance list of Steam sale dates is mostly useful for developers, so they can plan out how they want to take part in all the various events. But it’s also of interest to the public at large, because while Steam sales may not be the thrilling special events they were in days gone by, they’re still great opportunities to save big piles of money.

It’s also nice from my own personal, admittedly unusual perspective: I used to have to pay very close attention to Steam at certain times of the year, and then mash out a panicked Steam sale is live! news story the moment it popped up on the storefront. Now, I can plan, and it’s much less stressful.

In any event, here’s what you’ve got to look forward to over the second half of 2025:

• Automation Fest: July 14 – July 21
• Racing Fest: July 28 – August 4
• 4X Fest: August 11 – August 18
• Third Person Shooter (TPS) Fest: August 25 – September 1
• Political Sim Fest: September 8 – September 15
• 2025 Steam Autumn Sale: September 29 – October 6 (Please note this is a different time frame compared to previous Autumn Sales)
• Steam Next Fest – October 2025 Edition: October 13 – October 20
• Steam Scream 4: October 27 – November 3
• Animal Fest: November 10 – November 17
• Sports Fest: December 8 – December 15
• 2025 Steam Winter Sale: December 18 – January 5

The Autumn Sale is the one of particular note. As Valve said, it’s taking place in “a different time frame” this year, and that’s putting it mildly. The September 29 start date is two months earlier than the late November dates of past years: The Autumn Sale began on November 27 in 2024, November 21 in 2023, and November 22 in 2022.

Valve didn’t say why it made the shift, but the obvious reason is simply to space things out between the Autumn and Winter Sales. The 2024 Winter Sale began on December 19, just a couple weeks after the Autumn Sale ended. That’s not much of a chance to recover your financial situation between two major seasonal sales. It also spaces things out more evenly across all Steam’s seasonal sales, leaving roughly three months between each.

So now you can strategize how you want to blow your gaming budget for the balance of 2025: For what’s left in the way of Steam sales and events in the first half of the year, here’s our list of all the upcoming Steam sale dates.