Steam Autumn Sale 2026: The Best-Reviewed Games Under $10

The best-reviewed games under $10 in the Steam Autumn Sale 2026 are A Short Hike at $4.79 (99.1% positive), Portal 2 at $1.99 (98.7%) and The Henry Stickmin Collection at $5.99 (98.7%). In total, 81 discounted games cost $9.99 or less on the US store, have at least 10,000 Steam user reviews and are rated 96% positive or higher.

Every number here comes from Steam's store search and review API, read at 17:26 UTC on 1 October 2026, 26 minutes after the sale opened; we did not play these games for this article, and nothing made the list because we like it. Prices can change during the week, so treat the store page as the final word.

When does the Steam Autumn Sale 2026 start and end?

Valve's Steamworks page for the event says the Steam Autumn Sale runs from 1 to 8 October 2026 at 10am Pacific, which is 17:00 UTC on Thursday 1 October. PC Gamer's sale calendar lists the same 1–8 October window. The store's own countdown is the place to check the exact closing hour on 8 October.

Like every seasonal sale, it is open to almost every released game on Steam. Valve's seasonal sales documentation says any discount of 20% or more automatically emails players who have the game on their wishlist, which is why the wishlist is still the fastest way to catch a specific price drop.

How we picked the games

This is not a list of what we like. It is a filter over Steam's own data, and anyone can repeat it. We searched the US Steam store for discounted games priced at $9.99 or less, sorted by user reviews, and kept only full games (no DLC, soundtracks or bundles) with at least 10,000 Steam user reviews. Steam's search returns results in pages, so we read the first 500 results, which reach down to about 96% positive, and kept games rated 96% or higher. We then read each game's review totals directly from Steam's review API, counting reviews in every language.

A 97% score on 200 reviews and a 97% score on 200,000 reviews do not mean the same thing, which is why the 10,000-review floor exists: it keeps the list to games that a lot of people have bought and still recommend. Prices are US dollars before tax; regional prices on Steam differ and are not simple conversions.

The 25 best-reviewed games under $10

Ranked by the share of positive Steam reviews in all languages, calculated from Steam's own review totals. Only games with at least 10,000 reviews qualify, and every one of them is a full game rather than DLC.

Valve's older games make up much of the cheapest part of the full list. Portal, Portal 2, Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and the original Counter-Strike are all $1.99 at 80% off, and between them they carry more than two million reviews. At the other end of the age range, the newest game in the top 25 is Chants of Sennaar, released on Steam in September 2023.

The best picks under $2

Portal 2 ($1.99, 80% off, 98.7% positive from 467,386 reviews) is the standout: Valve's 2011 puzzle game, which its store page describes as including co-op puzzles you can design for friends. The original Portal from 2007 and Half-Life 2 from 2004 sit at the same $1.99, and Left 4 Dead 2, a four-player co-operative zombie shooter, has 1,060,507 reviews at 97.5% positive.

Below a dollar, Fireproof Games' puzzle-box series is worth a look: The Room and The Room Two are $0.99 each, at 97.7% and 97.5% positive. Before Your Eyes ($1.99, 80% off, 98.0% positive from 24,013 reviews) is a narrative game you control with your real-life blinks, according to its store page, which also lists a webcam as a requirement. Telltale's The Walking Dead, the five-part 2012 series, is $1.49 at 90% off.

The best picks from $2 to $5

A Short Hike is the best-reviewed game in the whole sale under our filter, at 99.1% positive from 22,771 reviews. It is adamgryu's 2019 game about reaching the summit of Hawk Peak Provincial Park, and it costs $4.79 with a modest 40% discount, so the usual price is only $7.99.

Terraria is the most-reviewed game on the list, with 1,558,740 reviews at 97.4% positive, and it is $4.99 at 50% off. If you are picking it up, our guide to the best Terraria mods covers what to add once you are done with the base game, and we have also compared it with Minecraft in Terraria vs Minecraft.

The rest of this price band is crowded with well-known indies: Vampire Survivors ($3.74, 25% off, 98.3% positive from 266,102 reviews), Celeste ($4.99, 75% off, 97.4% positive from 147,985 reviews) and Slime Rancher ($4.99, 75% off, 98.0% positive from 157,717 reviews). Two older favourites are among the deepest cuts on the list: Playdead's INSIDE is $2.49 at 90% off and Arkane's Dishonored is $2.49 at 75% off.

The best picks from $5 to $10

Hades ($6.24, 75% off, 98.0% positive from 309,087 reviews) and Slay the Spire ($6.24, 75% off, 97.5% positive from 218,990 reviews) are the two roguelikes most people will be weighing up here. Slay the Spire's sequel was the ninth most-played game on Steam's weekly chart on 27 September, according to Valve's most-played data, so the original is a cheap way into a series that is busy right now.

For something bigger, Capcom's 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake is $9.99 at 75% off, with 280,180 reviews at 97.4% positive, and Resident Evil 2 is $7.99 at 80% off. Co-op players have Deep Rock Galactic ($8.99, 70% off, 97.1% positive from 380,520 reviews) and survival fans Subnautica ($7.49, 75% off, 97.1% positive from 380,903 reviews).

Two newer games squeeze under the line: Chants of Sennaar, a puzzle game about deciphering the languages of a tower inspired by the Myth of Babel, and Neon White, a speedrunning first-person shooter, are both $9.99. The Henry Stickmin Collection ($5.99, 60% off, 98.7% positive from 59,815 reviews) and OneShot ($5.99, 40% off, 98.2% positive from 65,419 reviews) round out the band.

Was it cheaper before the sale?

We recorded the US price of every game with at least 10,000 reviews on 30 September, the day before the sale. The thesis of a list like this is that a seasonal sale is when prices drop, and for most of these games that holds: 73 of the 81 are cheaper now than they were the day before.

The counter-argument is in the other eight. They were already on discount on 30 September and are the same price today, so the sale changed nothing for them. Valve's rules allow this, because seasonal sales are exempt from the usual 30-day gap between discounts.

What we cannot tell you is whether any of these prices is the lowest ever. Steam does not publish price history through an official API, and a one-day snapshot is not a history. If the all-time low matters to you, check a price tracker before you buy.

What the review scores don't tell you

A Steam review is a thumbs up or down from someone who owns the game, so these percentages measure how happy players were, not how good a game will be for you. Older games have also had years to build up their totals, and our 10,000-review floor leaves out smaller or newer games that might suit you better. The 96% line drops popular games too: The Outlast Trials, 92% positive and $3.99 this week, has just set a record Steam player count thanks to its 90% discount.

A high score on a cheap game is still a strong signal, though. Every game in our top 25 is above 97% positive across at least 14,000 reviews.

Why aren't this month's new releases discounted?

If you were hoping to catch one of September's big launches cheap, the rules are against you. Valve's discounting rules say a product cannot be discounted for 30 days after its release, and the seasonal sales page adds that a game still inside that cooldown cannot join a seasonal sale. Every game in the table below launched on Steam fewer than 30 days before 1 October.

So if any of these shows a lower price on Steam this week, that will not be an Autumn Sale discount. Our reviews explain where each one stands in the meantime: Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant and EA Sports FC 27, plus our report on Ace Combat 8's early-access Steam reviews.

The same rules explain something that looks odd on the store: a game that was already discounted in the weeks before the sale can still be discounted again now. Seasonal sales are exempt from Valve's usual 30-day gap between discounts, according to the discounting rules, so a pre-sale promotion does not stop a publisher joining the Autumn Sale.

Why is the Autumn Sale in October now?

Until 2024 the Autumn Sale ran almost into the Winter Sale: the 2024 edition ended on 4 December and the Winter Sale began on 15 December, as PC Gamer pointed out. In 2025 Valve moved it to 29 September – 6 October, according to the calendar Windows Central reported, and filled the late-November gap with Steam's first Black Friday sale. The 2026 edition follows the same pattern, and PC Gamer's calendar lists another Black Friday sale for November, with exact dates still to be announced.

In practice that means two chances at autumn prices before Christmas: this week, and the November sale. If a game on your wishlist is not discounted now, nothing in the rules stops its publisher from discounting it in November or in the Winter Sale.