Steam's upcoming homepage overhaul makes finding new games so much easier

Steam is a busy place in 2026. We’re three months in and we’ve seen the store hit a new concurrent user peak not once, not twice, but thrice. Despite Epic Games’ consistent giveaways and GOG’s lack of DRM, Steam remains the premier storefront. But there’s always a cost to expansion. As more and more games flood onto Steam, it becomes harder and harder to find decent new titles, made worse by the ever-growing pile of generative AI slop. Valve’s latest update, however, is looking to combat that, making it easier to find new adventures and hopefully, in turn, helping shine a light on some of the more easily-missed indie games.

In its Wednesday, April 1 blog post (yes, I’m very aware of the date), Valve states that the primary aim of the Steam redesign is to “make it even easier for you to find new games by displaying more content and information.” It’s also “displaying higher resolution game art,” which is great for anyone who, like me, changes their PC’s wallpaper on a daily basis (it’s currently Koumei from Warframe).

As the store has grown, Valve has added various new sections and tabs to help you track all of the content it thinks you’re interested in. Between Recommended, wishlists, events, and sales, there’s a lot going on with the homepage. The redesign aims to make things more “cohesive.” It states that one of the “goal[s] of this visual refresh is to strike a balance between providing more consistency in UI elements, while allowing the unique nature of each section to show through.”

Let’s hone in on the ‘Featured and Recommended’ section. Currently, my list includes games like War Thunder and The First Descendant, which, as a fantasy RPG savant and visual novel enthusiast, doesn’t quite fit into my immediate tastes (my degree in War Studies is sobbing). With the new update, Valve is providing a little more information on why this game has been chosen for you – in its example, it cites the fact that The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin is a top seller, and that Reigns: The Witcher is published by Devolver Digital, presumably a response to having a high presence of Devolver-published games in your library.

When you hover over the Recommended and Featured section, you’ll also be able to check out a micro-trailer, although these can be switched off if you don’t want random jumpscares when you’re switching between tabs. More generally, when you hover over games themselves, you’ll be given more information than just the genres and review score.

The discounts section has bigger artwork, cutting off the somewhat ugly blue box that currently showcases the price cut, and there’s now infinite scroll.

My personal favorite, however, is the change to Discovery Queue. At the moment, when you click said section, you’re ferried through various different pages showcasing games Valve thinks you’ll want to play. Post-update, however, you won’t need to leave the homepage, and presumably the system will cycle through titles in the same way that the Recommended section currently does. It certainly saves a lot of needless clicking, in turn streamlining how quickly you actually get to check out newer titles.

Finally, there’ll be two new sections: ‘Your Wishlist,’ which showcases discounts on games from, well, your wishlist, and ‘DLC For Your Games,’ which highlights any discounted DLC for games you play. The example shows the likes of the Battle for Brooklyn for The Division 2, and Outer Wilds’ Echoes of the Eye.

While, on paper, a lot of these changes feel pretty small, I genuinely feel like this update is a bit of a gamechanger (pardon the pun). The Discovery Queue cuts down on the faff of finding new games, Recommended now tells me why I should actually care, and the visual stimuli of a trailer versus artwork will absolutely stop people from just scrolling – we live in the TikTok era, after all.

Overall, these changes are good: they improve visibility for newer titles while actually appealing to player tastes. It feels less scattershot, and more refined. The update is currently available via the Steam Client Beta branch, with no official release date at the time of writing. If you’re already on the beta, however, take it for a spin; let’s get those indies seen.