You can delete games from your Steam library now (but should not)

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 6, 2015
Updated • Dec 6, 2015
Games
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16

Most Steam users I know have accumulated an impressive number of games over their account's lifespan which can be attributed more often than not to frequent sales and binge buying of games as well as bundled offers that sometimes add more than ten games to an account.

I have added more than 170 games to my Steam account in the ten years that I have been a user of the service, and that does not include add-ons and DLC.

Many games have either been bought during sales, or as part of a bundle that I wanted one or two games of only.

Anyway, Valve added an option to Steam recently that enables you to delete games from the account permanently.

How to delete games from Steam permanently

steam delete games permanently

You can remove games permanently either directly from within the Steam client, or by loading the Steam website in a web browser.

Steam Client

  1. Select Help > Steam Support from the menu at the top.
  2. Select Games, Software, etc when asked what you need help with on the page that opens.
  3. Type the name of the game that you want to remove if it is not listed under recent products.
  4. Select "I want to permanently remove this game from my account".
  5. Make sure the game is uninstalled before you remove it, as you will have to do so manually if you remove a game from your Steam library that is still installed.
  6. Confirm that you really want to delete the game from the account by selecting "Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently".
  7. A confirmation is displayed on the next page stating that the selected game has been permanently removed from the account.

Steam Website

The method is nearly identical to that of the Steam client.

  1. Visit the https://help.steampowered.com/ website.
  2. Sign-in to your Steam account if you have not done so already.
  3. Use the search to find the game that you want to remove from your Steam library.
  4. Follow the steps outlined above.

Hiding instead of deleting

hide steam game

There are only a few situations where deleting games makes sense. For instance, if you want to install a different version of a game but cannot because it is already listed in your library. This may be an option if you have added a "cut" game for instance and got hold of an uncut version of the game later on.

Then there are situations where you may have been banned permanently from a game's multiplayer.

More often than not though, it may make sense to hide those games instead in your library as there is no benefit to deleting games over hiding them if you just want to remove a game from your library.

To hide a game on Steam do the following:

  1. Right-click on the game in your library and select "set categories" from the context menu.
  2. Check the "hide this game in my library" option and click ok afterwards.

The game is removed from the library immediately, and it won't come up in searches either that you perform.

You may display all hidden games with a click on "games" next to search on top of the library listing, and selecting hidden from the options.

You can list a game again in the library by removing the checkmark from the "hide this game in my library" box in the game's properties dialog.

Now You: How many Steam games do you have in your account?

Summary
You can delete games form your Steam library now
Article Name
You can delete games form your Steam library now
Description
Valve added an option to its Steam gaming platform recently that enables you to delete games permanently from the library of games.
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Comments

  1. Freemer Ocars said on June 19, 2018 at 5:28 am
    Reply

    Steam is sick, Valve is corrupted. Imagine a bunch of business scums trolling the whole games and industries, standing between players and games, users and PCs.

  2. Catnip said on April 12, 2018 at 9:16 pm
    Reply

    I did better than remove games from my steam account I had my account closed, best day of my life wiping a hundred titles into oblivion still don’t miss them to this day. The only didn’t like was waiting on steam for week to get around to deleting something that should take two fucking seconds.

  3. MonkeySeeker said on October 22, 2017 at 3:05 pm
    Reply

    It should be noted that “permanently deleting” games does no such thing. Again, all it REALLY does is hide them.

    “Permanently deleted” games can be restored again by following the same process as removing them but choosing “The game is not in my library” instead of “I want to permanently remove this game from my library”.

    So even if someone did remove a game then get “deleters remorse”, they’ll be able to get it back if they want.

  4. Albion Rammsey said on April 10, 2017 at 9:15 pm
    Reply

    Didn’t see it mentioned but the reason I’m removing ALL steam content is that I’m upgrading to a new, faster machine. My old turtle machine it going to my young brother.

  5. Alan Edwards said on December 8, 2015 at 10:57 am
    Reply

    The other thing you can do (I just discovered accidentally :) ) is that you can add the games you play regularly to the Favourites list and collapse the list of the non-favourites. Deleting a game totally does seem a bit drastic.

    37 games in my library, mostly cheap bundles I got in the last sale.

  6. Dave said on December 7, 2015 at 10:16 am
    Reply

    So, now drunken friends can delete each others games? Great

    1. Ugenx said on December 8, 2015 at 5:33 am
      Reply

      I’m pretty surprised they didn’t password prompt it..

  7. Jeff said on December 6, 2015 at 8:41 pm
    Reply

    It’s about time. Now if they’d only let us delete crap items from inventory.

    And Martin, unless I overlooked it, you didn’t mention something important. If you delete any one game from a bundle, it will delete the entire bundle, if that bundle was all added using the same code. It does warn you by telling you which additional games will be deleted.

    I learned this from deleting Secret of the Magic Crystals (finally!)

  8. Gabe said on December 6, 2015 at 7:43 pm
    Reply

    Why the (but should not) in the title?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on December 6, 2015 at 8:49 pm
      Reply

      Because it makes no sense in most cases to delete games since you can hide them.

      1. Jeff said on December 7, 2015 at 12:07 am
        Reply

        They already were hidden. I wanted them gone, and now they are. The games I got rid of wouldn’t sell for much at all (if anything) anyway. Most of them were rubbish. I place greater value on having the control over my library, and reducing clutter.

        I’m very glad you posted this tip. I was able to clean out about 50 unwanted games!

      2. Jeff said on December 6, 2015 at 9:08 pm
        Reply

        It makes a lot of sense, for me at least. When I know for a fact I’ll never touch those games, I’d much rather get rid of them for good. In fact, I’ve been having a good bit of fun deleting games like crazy since I read this article! Finally, I can pare my collection down to just the games I want.

      3. Martin Brinkmann said on December 6, 2015 at 9:27 pm
        Reply

        You could hide them instead for the same effect. Plus, you’d keep them in your account for the chance of feeling the urge to play those games again in the future. And who knows, maybe you may sell used games on Steam one day ;)

  9. Froyton said on December 6, 2015 at 3:57 pm
    Reply

    I can thing of a few edge cases where this feature would come in handy, aside from the scenarios already listed. For example, had I owned Payday 2, I would definitely be purging it from my library right now. :P

    118 games in my library. The vast majority came from bundles or other purchases from the humble store.

    1. Chains The Bounty Hunter said on December 6, 2015 at 7:01 pm
      Reply

      The thing is, such an ‘edge case’ doesn’t benefit you in the slightest beyond a personal sense of satisfaction (the Payday 2 developers have made it clear they’re comfortable with the current situation, even if they are “changing” it slightly, so unless their playerbase dwindled to double or single digits overnight I don’t think they’d care – and the plus side is in their favor, since they’d still have whatever money you spent to originally buy their game).

  10. Adithya FRK said on December 6, 2015 at 3:50 pm
    Reply

    It’s from not form

    BTW Nice article as always Martin

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