steam-pricing-strategy

Match your game's content hours and production quality to standard tiers: $9.99-$14.99 for standard indie games with 5-20 hours of content, and $14.99-$24.99 for premium indie titles. Benchmark competitors in your genre using Steam store data before finalizing.

Steam caps launch discounts at 40% with a minimum 7-day duration. A 10-15% discount is recommended for most launches, as it converts wishlists without devaluing the game or limiting future sale depth.

Valve provides suggested regional prices based on purchasing power parity, such as roughly 0.40-0.55x USD for Brazil and 0.50-0.65x for China. Developers can customize per-currency prices in Steamworks and should review them annually as exchange rates shift.

Steam enforces a minimum 28-day cooldown between discounts, and you cannot raise the price within 28 days before a discount. A typical cadence is 3-4 major sales per year with progressively deeper discounts over the game's lifecycle.

Free-to-play conversion makes sense when microtransaction revenue can exceed unit sales, but F2P games typically need 10-50x larger player bases to match paid revenue. Compensate existing owners with exclusive items or premium currency, and note the change is permanent.