If you’re a gamer or your friend or loved one is a gamer, buy a Steam gift card as the perfect gift. You can buy a Steam gift card online, and it will hold its value and offer endless hours of gaming fun.
Steam is amazing, and their gift cards always make for a perfect gift.
If you’re not sure why you would purchase a Steam gift card, I am going to explain just how amazing Steam is for gamers.
1. Games Often Go on Sale
Steam sales are crazy. You receive steep discounts on games, and these sales are one of the go-to options when you get a Steam gift card. But if you’ve ever purchased from Steam, you’ll know that these sales are well-guarded secrets.
Steam keeps a very tight lid on when their sales occur.
But we know that there’s often a big sale every summer and winter. Sales run for almost two weeks, and there are sales in the following:
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]Spring[/list_item]
[list_item]Halloween[/list_item]
[list_item]Summer[/list_item]
[list_item]Winter[/list_item]
[list_item]Black Friday[/list_item]
[/list]
Of course, sales are not definite, so there may be more or fewer sales during the year. Games often go on sale individually, so there’s always a reason to go back on Steam and look for new games to purchase.
Summer sales are often the best, and some prices can go from $50 to $5 (we’ve seen this happen for Portal 2).
Spring and sales on Black Friday last around a week.
All other sales usually last around two weeks. It’s the perfect sale duration.
The great news is that not only are games on sale, but you can also snatch up expansions and even DLCs. So, let’s say that a new DLC came out, the person you bought a Steam gift card for will be able to purchase the DLC.
Sales get even better when you look at publisher bundles.
These bundles allow you to save money on entire catalogs of games. Rockstar bundles, for example, had a major sale one year where I was able to purchase multiple Grand Theft Auto games for cheap – it was perfect.
2. Access to AAA titles, Indies and Retro Games
Steam doesn’t just offer Steel Division II, Shadowbringers, Bloodstained, GTA and other AAA titles. Sure, you’ll always be able to find the latest games on Steam, and you can also purchase special edition copies as well as pre-purchase many games.
Top sellers will always be key in the Steam Community.
But if you’re a true gamer, you’ll dig deeper into Steam and realize that there are a plethora of games that aren’t AAA titles. You’ll find an array of Indie games as well as a massive library of retro games that never lose their appeal.
If you want to get “really retro,” you can go back to Grand Theft Auto the original.
There are so many great games, and the Indie and retro games are often just a few dollars in price. Oftentimes, especially during sales, you’ll be able to find retro packs or Indie packs. This is the time to make a big purchase.
Indie developers just want to get their name into the world.
So, these Indie developers will offer cheaper prices and some of the best deals on new games around. It’s a lot of fun to try out these amazing titles.
Steam is always updating their catalog of games, so you have virtually every game released on the platform. When millions of users rely on the platform, it’s easy to see why people buy Steam gift cards.
3. Games Are Account-Based
Most people, and I do know some that are an exception, do not want the DVD version of games anymore. There’s no reason for physical copies when you can purchase games online and start playing once they’ve been downloaded.
Steam is an account-based platform.
You load up Steam, enter your credentials, and then the loader will start up. You can then start to choose which games to download from your library or play.
Steam is so innovative that other players recommend it to their friends, so millions of people are on the platform. It’s a great option for all gamers.
Since all of the games are tied to an account, you have true gaming freedom.
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]Switch computers? Log into the account and download the game again[/list_item]
[list_item]Reinstall or uninstall games without fear that you’ll lose your DVD[/list_item]
[list_item]Lose your DVDs often? Simply log into Steam and you’re able to install all of your games[/list_item]
[/list]
It’s very easy to get started with Steam. If you’ve lost your game’s DVD, you have to purchase the game again. Steam makes sure that if your hard drive crashes, you never lose all of the games that you’ve purchased.
Digital purchases are the future, and games are meant to be enjoyed quickly.
We’re quickly moving towards a time when there will be fewer and fewer physical copies of games. Developers have no need to spend money on packaging and production – everything can be handled digitally.
Games may be the same price whether digital or not, but they’re cheaper to mass produce when digital copies are made.
A person only needs to download the Steam app and start enjoying their library.
Keep in mind that there is a mode that allows you to share titles with family.
You’ll be locked to just one user being able to play the game at one time, but this allows gamers to “share” a game with a family member.
4. Steam is Not Just a Video Game Digital Distribution Platform
There are a lot of reasons to buy a Steam gift card, and one of the key mistakes that people make is that they think Steam is a video game digital distribution platform. Yes, you can purchase games on the platform, but it’s so much more than just a marketplace for games.
When you buy a Steam gift card, you’re opening the doors to the company’s:
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]Digital rights management (DRM)[/list_item]
[list_item]Matchmaking servers which allow you to play with friends or others around the world[/list_item]
[list_item]An easy and fast way to begin streaming[/list_item]
[list_item]A massive social networking community[/list_item]
[/list]
You’ll know when your friends or family are online, and you’ll be able to chat with friends or family in an instant.
But that’s not all.
Community members leave reviews of all the latest games. You can read through reviews and engage with others to determine if a game is the right choice for you.
Speaking of games, Steam will handle the entire installation or reinstallation of your games. Perhaps something caused an error when playing, so a file is now corrupted. It takes a click of a button to reinstall the game and get “back up and running.”
It gets even better though.
You can create lists of friends or even groups of friends. This helps you easily keep track of which friends play which games. If you’re worried that your computer may become corrupted, it happens all of the time.
Saved game files on your computer that are corrupt mean that you’ve lost all access to your game’s state. You have to start over, and this is the last thing any gamer wants to do, especially if they’re playing a massive game like Witcher 3.
Steam offers cloud saving so that you never have to worry about corrupt or lost saved games again.
Games are also updated automatically, so you will always have the latest version of the game or a patch. Bugs are fixed, security holes are corrected and all of it happens behind the scenes so that you never have to manually deal with it again.
But there’s still more.
Steam wants to be the last place you go to when playing games. The company wants to offer the complete package for a gamer, and a complete package means that they also offer:
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]In-game voice[/list_item]
[list_item]Chat[/list_item]
[/list]
You’re free to use any voice server or Discord if you want, but Steam does have a built-in option that is also easy and intuitive.
When it comes to overall functionality and a massive number of features, it’s hard to beat Steam – no one even comes close.
5. Supports Multiple Platforms
The majority of gamers play on Microsoft Windows, so those users that have a macOS or Linux operating system are often out of luck. It’s a Windows-or-nothing world for many of these gamers, but there are other platforms, too.
Steam supports pretty much every platform:
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]Microsoft Windows[/list_item]
[list_item]MacOS[/list_item]
[list_item]Linux[/list_item]
[list_item]iOS[/list_item]
[list_item]Android[/list_item]
[list_item]Others[/list_item]
[/list]
A lot of platforms are supported, and since everything is account-based, you can jump from one platform to the next without any issues. This is a major improvement over the traditional game installation.
Even if you’re just using Linux for development, you can install Steam to know when your friends come online or to chat with them.
That’s the beauty of Steam also being a social networking platform. The company is one of the most forward-thinking companies around, and this means that you’re the one who will benefit from using Steam the most.
It’s a fast, easy-to-use platform that is versatile and allows you to remain connected with your friends.
Forget about GameStop or those other companies – they’re quickly becoming obsolete.
6. Millions of Users and Growing
Steam has a massive user base, and the last figures I can find from six months ago was that the platform had about 90 million monthly users. And over 47 million users log into their Steam account every day.
That’s more people than a lot of countries have in terms of population.
If you’re from the US, imagine 1-in-4 people using Steam on a daily basis. This may not seem important for the person that simply plays single player titles, but it’s a great community of gamers that are all playing when you play.
There’s never a need to play alone if you don’t want to play alone. If you go back to early 2018, you’ll find that there were 18.5 million people on concurrently.
The company has over 30,000 titles, so there’s always someone playing the games you’re playing.
You have to think about all of this when you buy a Steam gift card online. Others are playing the games you’re playing. You’re able to connect and make more friends on the platform. It’s a great way to make games social again.
I want to let you in on another insightful statistic.
When the platform had just over 17.4 million people on at one time, there were 5.5 million people on games. Others were talking to each other and being part of the community.
North America, Western Europe and Asia make up the majority of the player base, and English remains the most popular language, with 38% of people on the platform speaking English.
7. Steam Also Offers More Than Games
I would love to claim that Steam offered a ton of software, but the company has stuck primarily to games. Software developers are a little stricter on the release of their titles than game developers.
But that doesn’t mean that Steam doesn’t offer great software options – there’s just not a ton of options.
You’ll find that the platform has software that is primarily developer-related, such as:
[list style=’regular’]
[list_item]VoiceAttack[/list_item]
[list_item]RPG Maker XP[/list_item]
[/list]
The platform has categories for animation, modeling, audio production, video production, web publishing, game development, photo editing and more.
You’ve been generous and bought someone a Steam gift card. Well, they can also return the favor by sending a digital gift to someone else. I have had family members send me games as gifts, and this allows me to stay connected with them and play with them, too.
Steam is always trying to keep people connected, and through sharing, it’s a lot easier and a lot more fun to invite others to play with you.
Since you’re adding the card to your account, you can always access your funds and then purchase a game. If you have a gamer in your life that you want to buy something for but have no clue what they want, you can’t go wrong with a Steam gift card.
