The Ultimate Guide to Clearing Your Steam Library

For a long time, once you downloaded a game from Steam, you owned it forever. For most people, just ignoring a game is easy enough—you can just go about your gaming schedule and ignore it. But sometimes, you just want a game gone.

We’ll look at how you can permanently remove a game from your Steam. Also, we’ll show you a couple of alternatives to removing a game in case you change your mind.

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How to Remove a Game From Your Steam Library

Before removing a game, check if you canget a refund from Steam . You can get a refund if you’ve played the game for less than two hours and no more than two weeks have passed since the purchase. But if this is not the case, here’s how to remove the game from your Steam library.

First, you should uninstall the game using the Steam app. Otherwise, you’ll have to manually uninstall it from your computer once you remove it from your Steam account.

Then, go to the game in your Library and click on the game you want to remove. On the right side of the game’s page, click theSupport link. This will take you to the game’s support page, where there are all kinds of options for issues with a game. The important one for our needs is at the very bottom.

Click the button labeledI want to permanently remove this game from my account .

A page will launch asking you to confirm your choice, and then it will be gone forever.

Just remember that you’ll need to repurchase the game if you change your mind down the road. Also, bonus and downloadable content will be removed along with the main game, so you should really think this through.

Alternatives to Removing a Steam Game

There are a few reasons why you might want to remove a game from your library. Maybe a game’s content is inappropriate for a younger family member, or you’re playing a silly game you don’t want your friends and family to learn about.

Whatever your reason, permanently removing a game from your library may be a bit too much sometimes. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways to keep the game away from curious eyes and hands.

Hide Steam Games

If you don’t want anyone to find a particular game on your Steam library, you should hide it. Once you launch the app, select the game you want to hide and click theSettings icon. Then, clickManage > Hide this game .

You can hide any game on your Steam account, including installed or uninstalled games. Also, you can hide the single or multiplayer version of the same game.

To access a hidden game, open theView menu and clickView hidden games . If you want to bring the game back to the library’s normal view, open theSettings menu and clickManage > Remove from Hidden .

Uninstall a Game and Reinstall It Later

Sometimes, hiding a game is not enough, as other people can easily find and play it. Now, if you have a game in your library that you still want to play sometime in the future,you can uninstall that Steam game and reinstall it later .

Share Your Games

Before removing a game from your Steam account, ask your friends if they wouldn’t want to play it. With the Steam Family Sharing feature, they can play games from your library without having to pay.

Here’s how you can share your Steam games:

1. Log into your Steam account on your friend’s computer.
2. Open theSteam menu and go toSettings > Family .
3. Turn on the toggle next toAuthorize Library Sharing on this Computer .
4. Authorize your friend’s account.

Now you can authorize your friend’s account if they logged into using the same computer. If they didn’t, you’ll get the “No other local accounts found” message.

Once you add their account, log out of your Steam account. Then, once your friend logs back in, your Steam library titles should be available to download and install.

Can You Sell Your Steam Games?

Unfortunately, Steam doesn’t allow you to sell games from your library. So, the next time you have to choose betweenphysical games or digital games , the first option might be better, if you’ve got a physical edition of a PC game that you can sell (i.e one without a unique, one-time download code). At least, there’s no one stopping you from selling the games you’re no longer playing.

However, you can still get some of your money back for your Steam games. On theSteam Community Market , you can sell in-game items such as inventory pieces, trading cards, profile wallpapers, and so on. The rarer an item is, the more money you can get for it.

However, you should know that you can only spend the earned money to buy Steam games or other items from the marketplace.

Clear Your Steam Library

Hopefully, you got rid of the games that you no longer play and do nothing but clutter your library. Also, the other three options might give you a hand when it comes to organizing your game list.

Now that you’ve cleaned up your Steam library, you can add a few more games without spending too much money. You can wait for the Steam summer sale, have Steam email you about a game sale, or buy titles from a partner store. Also, there are plenty of free games available on Steam.

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