How do Steam Sales work?

Someone told me that Mondays start the sales of the "lesser" known titles nobody buys much. Then like Tues-Weds the midweek madness starts and this is usually where the bigger titles get put on Sale. Then you have your weekend Sales which usually last a shorter amount of time with the even bigger AAA titles going on sale. Then of course the daily sales. Then week long sales of lesser titles too?

Anyway……………..

But does anyone have a road-map of sorts on how this works? Like for example, what specific types of games will go on sale at different points of the week? There is a formula to this and a why and how. But I don't quite understand it.

Steam is so bloated with names and sales I doubt even if there was an exact formula and we knew how it worked that it would help you.

Wishlist the games you want to buy and wait till they drop to a price you want to pay.

Well, I'm sure that behind the scenes all of the publishers and developers are constantly trying to score that elusive front page spot. Some of them would probably like to have permanent sales just to be in the sales category on page 1 all the time but since not everyone can be in the spotlight all the time, yes, I guess that Valve has a set of rules for who gets how much exposure.

Whether there is a formula for it (like a points system maybe? … could make sense, I guess) or if they just work it out on amicable terms with a schedule planner is anyone's guess.

Other than that you are right. Monday is the start of the weeklong sales which run until the Monday of the next week at 10AM PST/PDT. Tuesday is midweek madness time, Wednesday is a miss except a daily sale, Thursday is the day for weekend sales and free weekends which usually run until Sunday. And Friday, Saturday, Sunday, nothing special usually except daily sales. That's it in a nutshell, yes.

Not sure, but the important thing is you can get games on steam for dirt cheap prices. I never buy a game for full retail price these days, unless it is something I really want and don't want to wait for a sale. (which I can count the number of games on one hand that met this criteria in the last few years)

You can get these games for 50%-80% or more off the full price if you pay attention and take advantage of the big sales they often have.

Originally Posted by Moriendor

Other than that you are right. Monday is the start of the weeklong sales which run until the Monday of the next week at 10AM PST/PDT. Tuesday is midweek madness time, Wednesday is a miss except a daily sale, Thursday is the day for weekend sales and free weekends which usually run until Sunday. And Friday, Saturday, Sunday, nothing special usually except daily sales. That's it in a nutshell, yes.

Any idea what sorts of games fall into these categories? For example - I have rarely seen big titles go on that Monday week long sale. Those are usually midweek or weekend. Seems to me that the lesser titles start monday and it kind of goes up the pecking order ladder from there regarding least to best seller(s).

The Monday sales are all week and I don't think the big games do those very often. They do 'mid-week' (Tuesday, Wednesday, part of Thursday) and weekend "(Thursday, Friday, Saturday, part of Monday)" plenty. That's the publishers' call, though, and nothing is stopping them from changing their minds.

Really, what Wisdom said is right. Just stick the ones you want on your wish list and Steam will email you.

The best thing you can do is put the games you want in your wishlist, you'll get an email when they go on sale. And going even further, go to isthereanydeal.com, once you fill your info it'll automatically import your Steam wishlist and will tell you when your games are on sale on any store, you can even set price points (so you don't get an alert when they go 5 cents lower). I've used it for years and I've saved a lot of money that way.

2nd vote to the isthereanydeal.com. Best way to get Steam games imo.

prefer cheapshark to isthereanydeal; you can also sign up for email notification if game reaches a specific price.

Originally Posted by you
prefer cheapshark to isthereanydeal; you can also sign up for email notification if game reaches a specific price.

I never heard of cheapshark. I just checked it out and couldn't find a way to create an account, and to connect the account to Steam to get my wishlist. It all just looked like a list of stores with sales.

If you search for a game there is an option to setup an email notification if the game drops below a certain price. You don't have to create an account you just give it an email address. Also it shows you the lowest historical price for the game (but not the site that had it - isthereanydeal has better historical information).

Originally Posted by you
If you search for a game there is an option to setup an email notification if the game drops below a certain price. You don't have to create an account you just give it an email address. Also it shows you the lowest historical price for the game (but not the site that had it - isthereanydeal has better historical information).

Hmm… that (and many more things) you can do in ITAD, can't see any feature it does that ITAD doesn't do, why do you prefer it I'm curious?

It had the price notification thing before ITAD. Also I would never link my external accounts (like steam wish list); too much information sharing.

I know about the email and how to check for sales………that isn't my question though…

I was just curious what types of games go on sale on which days. Like for example….

Monday/week long sales (what types of games go on sale here?)
Tuesday-Weds/Midweek sales (what types of games go on sale here?)
Thurs-Sunday/Weekend sales (what types of games go on sale here?)

Any game falls under the daily deals I believe.

There is a method to this I have noticed, however, I can't quite pinpoint it.

Originally Posted by wolfing
I never heard of cheapshark. I just checked it out and couldn't find a way to create an account, and to connect the account to Steam to get my wishlist. It all just looked like a list of stores with sales.

I use Cheapshark as well, and you don't need to register an account with them. All they need is an email for price alerts.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I use Cheapshark as well, and you don't need to register an account with them. All they need is an email for price alerts.

Right, but ITAD does that and many more things, so it seems the features are just a small subset of ITAD, so I'm curious why one would choose Cheapshark over ITAD if ITAD does everything Cheapshark does and much more. Is it because the web site looks cleaner or something?