Steam will no longer have Lunar New Year Sales

If you’re big into PC gaming, you’ve probably heard of Steam and the legendary sales they have. They’re so popular in fact, there’s even websites dedicated to tracking when the next Steam Sale will happen. The big one is typically the Steam Summer Sale that happens in June every year, but there’s also a number of other smaller scale sales throughout the year.

One such event is the Steam Lunar New Year Sale, which has been ongoing since 2016. Valve, the video game company behind Steam, had started the Lunar New Year Sale back in 2016 to celebrate the influx of game developers and gamers themselves from regions such as Hong Kong, China, South Korea and more across Asia. It typically features plenty of artwork depicting East Asian styles and motifs, and normally has the animal of the year from the Chinese zodiac front and center.

Unfortunately, Steam is saying goodbye to the Lunar New Year Sale, with no such event planned for 2023 and beyond. According to Steam, they’ve been receiving feedback over the years that the Lunar New Year sale was oftentimes placed too close to the December holiday sale period. This is perhaps especially true in years when the Lunar New Year falls in January, just weeks after the usual Steam Winter Sale.

Instead, in its place is the new Steam Spring Sale. It will take place from 16 March to 23 March and will be the new seasonal sale at the start of the year. This gives both game publishers and gamers some time between the big Steam-wide seasonal sales, though individual publishers will still be able to make custom promotions for Lunar New Year if they wish.

“The addition of a Spring Sale was a popular request from our developer and publisher community. It will allow us to create more space between our four major seasonal sales and provide more opportunities throughout the year for developers to expand and execute their discounting calendar,” – Steam

The Steam Spring Sale will look mostly like the other current seasonal sales that the platform has, such as the Summer, Autumn and Winter sale. It will be a platform-wide event, meaning you can expect plenty of discounts for games that you’ve been wanting to get. Publishers meanwhile might appreciate the fixed nature of the Spring Sale instead of the Lunar New Year sale that changes every year, as it makes it easier to plan the launch of a new game—visibility for new releases during these sales is significantly reduced as the front page is filled with titles on sale instead.

With that being said though, I will certainly miss the Steam Lunar New Year Sale and the beautiful artwork it often came along with.