Steam adds new Trending Free tab for everything free-to-play

Steam users were recently greeted with a new ‘Trending Free’ tab alongside the regular four of New & Trending, Top Sellers, Popular Upcoming and Specials. The reason for this, you ask, is the surge in video games over the last few years.

As per SteamDB, yearly releases from over 9,000 in 2020 have increased to over 14,000 by 2023. People entering game development skyrocketed during the Pandemic as people were looking to make the next sleeper hit or simply earn a quick buck. This opened the floodgates that can often times push other games way out of sight.

Most of these games, as many would have guessed, were Shovelware priced free with some featuring in-game purchases or DLCs. There are also several game demos released on a daily basis for player feedback, and while the demos do help devs to improve the final product, they also flood various sections. Sections like New & Trending were usually a mess, and users have been complaining about them for some time now.

A quick solution nets Valve fan respect

Users who noticed the new Trending Free were quite impressed with Valve’s decision. The new section contains all the free-to-play games, including demos. This has cleaned up all the other sections and players can finally check out the actual full release without a demo pushing them down.

Also Read:Valve adds a small change to Steam refund policy

The Trending Free also have an option for users specifically looking for either game demos or free-to-play titles. This further resolves the problem of players looking for free-to-play games. As for demos, An update last month saw Valve add a much-requested feature for game demos.

Demos can now have their own store page and can be added and installed to the game library separately from the full game. While the change may look minuscule, after all, it was just a new section, it does take away the frustration of browsing the games you want.