# Steam 716 Hacker News commenters recommended Steam and 384 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 13 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 20 years (45 owners). **Verdict:** The default PC game store and launcher, praised for frequent deep sales, cloud saves, family sharing and Linux support via Proton; critics note games are DRM-bound licenses you can't resell. ## Why people recommend it - Strong Linux and Proton support (6 comments): "they have invested a lot of effort into the compatibility layers, which allows gamedevs to support Steam Devices with no extra effort" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47999979)) "It's definitely not about lock-in for me. It's everything from local streaming, to linux support, to cloud saving working properly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514871)) "Steam handles the management of pulling whatever the most recent version of Proton-GE is for me and everything pretty much works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48538163)) - Customer-friendly, trusted company (6 comments): "The fact is that Steam has an incredibly loyal _userbase_ and you won't convince them to leave unless steam betrays their trust, which they haven't." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947055)) "They are managing their market position well by not abusing their customers or giving customers a reason to complain to lawmakers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46141398)) "I've seen no signs of steam actually abusing their standing in the market. If anything they seem to be nicer than they have to be." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45822667)) - Frequent deep sales and discounts (4 comments): "Steam with thousands of games, that regularly has (or had) massively deep sales that let you get games for cheap, barely uses resources" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47508581)) "Valve, who offers perpetual licenses exclusively, offers steep discounts often, and is worth 10s of billions of dollars." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46074113)) "Steam with cloud saves, auto-updates, built-in workshop, and the many sales is overall a much better user experience." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46025838)) - Cloud saves, sharing and conveniences (5 comments): "It's definitely not about lock-in for me. It's everything from local streaming, to linux support, to cloud saving working properly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47514871)) "Over time, the Steam DRM has also been more permissive than before, as I can now play my "family's" games and they can play mine." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45914179)) "With Steam, she can easily have the Steam Client open on both her laptop and her user account on my gaming rig simultaneously" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46315343)) ## What people warn about - Can't resell or lend games (3 comments): "Steam has issues, and you certainly can't (legally) trade or sell your library, but nearly no single player games on the platform have DRM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48864931)) "The lack of right of first sale, that your many thousands of dollar catalog of beloved games & your saves kicks the bucket with you is going to be a not great look for Steam some day." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48994554)) "Its not like we can sell or even lend the games from Steam that we have, not without breaking the licence terms and hacking around the DRM." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48796515)) - DRM and account lock-in (4 comments): "Until Steam starts telling me before I buy which games have their DRM and which doesn't, they belong in the same category as Sony and Microsoft." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48797042)) "I don't like being locked into steam and "Gabe the goodest billionaire" propaganda exists to keep people from engaging in competitor products." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825336)) "Valve forced players to install it, force an online activation, and permanently bind their retail copies of Half-Life 2 to a Steam account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48749553)) - Could turn on customers someday (2 comments): "Steam has been (mostly) a good citizen. But there's not much in the way of legal or technical hurdles to them going down the same path." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48755953)) "currently its reasonably customer friendly but as we have seen these big tech companies can turn on their customer base at any moment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48796319)) - Store flooded with low-quality games (2 comments): "Have you looked at daily Steam releases lately? It's 90% AI-generated hentai games, asset flips, or AI-generated hentai asset flip games." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46829207)) "I open Steam, and feel the strong sense of rejection, like eww this is well and truly a disgusting selection of repackaged Unity assets" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47230494)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [GOG](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gog.md): 250 recommend - [itch.io](https://hackerapproved.com/p/itch-io.md): 39 recommend - [Epic Games Store](https://hackerapproved.com/p/epic-games-store.md): 37 recommend - [Humble Bundle](https://hackerapproved.com/p/humble-bundle.md): 20 recommend - [PlayStation Store](https://hackerapproved.com/p/playstation-store.md): 6 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://store.steampowered.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Steam", https://hackerapproved.com/p/steam/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).