Valve Updates Steam Wishlists With Categories and Smarter Game Gifting
Valve has rolled out a fresh Steam update that makes wishlists easier to organize and share, while also expanding how you can gift games—introducing category links, guest checkout for game gifts, and region-aware gifting.
New wishlist categories let you tag and filter your “maybes”
Steam wishlists now support fully customizable “categories.” These are tags you can apply to games with a single click, and you can name each category anything you want.
Once you’ve created categories, you can manage your wishlist in a more targeted way:
- Apply any category you’ve used before to other games in your wishlist
- Filter your wishlist using tabs for specific categories
- See your most-used categories appear in the “Add to Wishlist” dropdown on game pages
- Set wishlist notifications to trigger only for selected categories
More wishlist browsing upgrades
Valve also tightened up how wishlists work day to day, including improvements to search and added visibility for games with demos.
- Wishlist search now includes autocomplete
- Games that have demos are marked on your wishlist
- You can get notified when a new demo is released
- “Microtrailers” play when you hover over a game’s image in your wishlist
- General browsing is updated to better return you to what you were looking at when switching pages
Share a specific wishlist category (and revoke it later)
Sharing is getting more flexible. Instead of only sharing your full wishlist, Steam now lets you share a specific wishlist category through a custom URL.
Key details:
- The link shows the recipient that category’s games
- The rest of your wishlist can remain private
- Valve describes this as useful for curated gift lists, such as birthday wishlists
- You can revoke the link after it’s no longer needed, stopping future access
Gift without an account: guest checkout for any Steam game
On the gifting side, Steam is adding guest checkout for game gifts. Previously, guest checkout was limited to digital gift cards and hardware; now it extends to any game on Steam.
If someone is using your shared wishlist category link, they can click “Purchase as a gift” directly from that page. Valve says this auto-fills the required information and doesn’t require the recipient to have a Steam account or to be friends with you on Steam.
Email gifts: send to an address instead of an account
Valve is also introducing email gifts for cases where you don’t know the recipient’s Steam account (or you want to avoid spoiling the surprise).
Restrictions and requirements include:
- Gifts sent via email are automatically refunded if not accepted within 30 days
- Delivery cannot be scheduled for a future date
- The gift must be for someone who lives in your region
Cross-region gifting is now enabled (with friend requirement)
Steam now supports cross-region gifting. Steam calculates the correct cost based on the recipient’s location.
- You may end up paying more than for your own copy, depending on local pricing
- This option wasn’t previously available
- To use cross-region gifting, you must be Steam friends with the recipient
What this update changes for everyday Steam users
Valve frames these as usability improvements for wishlists and gifting. For players, the biggest practical shift is being able to sort and notify by categories, share only what you want others to see via category links, and gift games more flexibly—without requiring the recipient to already have a Steam account.
