PayPal UK tweeted out the official start of the Steam Summer Sale, one of the biggest PC games sale to occur.
The Steam Summer Sale will officially start on June 22 at 6 p.m. British Summer Time (this also means 1 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 12 p.m. Central Standard Time and 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time for those living in the United States) and if you use PayPal UK to pay for Steam games, you can get £5 off when you spend £20. It is unknown currently if PayPal in the United States will offer something similar for their customers.
Last year’s Steam Summer Sale lasted from June 23 to July 4, making the timing between last year’s sale and this year’s sale off by just a day. Some of the games discounted for last year’s Steam Summer Sale include 60 percent off of 7 Days to Die which normally costs $24.99, 40 percent off of DOOM which normally costs $29.99 (as of 2017, the price seems to have dropped between last year and this year), 75 percent off of Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number which normally costs $14.99 along with many more other games with heavily discounted prices (sales information came from VG24/7, USgamer, and BGR).
This isn’t the first time that this date for this year’s Steam Summer Sale was mentioned, though. The Steam Summer Sale date for 2017 was originally leaked in May on Reddit, according to GameZone. The time was specifically mentioned to be 9:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on June 22 and ends on 10:05 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on the day it ends. Any Steam special sale has never been safe from leaks. This can be used to the advantage of gamers, who have been patiently waiting for huge discounts on some of their favorite games.
Steam’s Winter Sale from last year was leaked, according to PC Gamer. The leak came from a developer’s only thread on NeoGAF, stating that the Steam Winter Sale would start on December 22 at 9:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Apparently, the start date to the Steam Winter Sale of 2015 was also December 22, which made the date more believable. It seems that Steam has a thing for starting discounts on the 22nd of the month selected for the sale.
In the past, the Steam Summer Sale offered rewards to those who bought discounted games. The Monster Steam Summer Sale of 2015 gave gamers a chance to get the Summer Sale Badge to add to their badge collections. Gamers can create the badge by earning 10 Summer Sale trading cards by buying games, trading cards with friends, buying the cards individually in the Community Market, creating other game badges, and playing the Monster Summer Game.
Playing the Monster Summer Game by defeating monsters, leveling up, unlocking abilities and supporting your team through special upgrades gave the Steam community the ability to unlock special discounts along with gaining the Summer Sale trading cards. Last year, 71 games received special discounts as a result.
“4.97 million of you defeated 180 million monsters, activated 362 million abilities, used 322 million items, and ‘clicked’ your mouse buttons 97 billion times,” it says in the description of the Monster Summer Game since it ended. More information on the Monster Summer Game that was incorporated into the Steam Summer Sale of 2015 can be found here.
Those are some amazing statistics, which could factor into how much time people were spending on Steam during the Steam Summer Sale. In 2016, no mini game or special badge/trading cards were created for the Steam Summer Sale, although gamers still bought an incredible amount of discounted games.
The sale will end on July 5, so mentally prepare yourself to spend all of your money on Steam games you may never even touch. Totally worth it.
Featured image via Flickr/BagoGames.
