As you’re probably aware, there’s the Steam Summer Sale 2026 currently ongoing. But if you’re vulnerable to retail therapy and only want a simulation of the thing, oddly enough there’s just the thing for you. It’s called the Steam Summer Sale simulator, and as the name suggests, it’s a simulation of the sale, but with no real money spent. As a result, you obviously don’t actually get any games added to your library either.
Worth noting before you go any further is that, on most browsers, you’ll get a fake website warning when visiting the simulation site. Pretty understandable, since most phishing sites operate in the same way. But for what it’s worth, the Steam Summer Sale simulator doesn’t ask for your password, and you can make up any username to “sign in”. But because nothing is real, you don’t get localised pricing either, so everything is in US$.
In fact, there’s a lot that tells you that the experience is not real. Clicking on “games” immediately adds them to your “cart” rather than taking you to its dedicated page. You also get “US$100” in your wallet, which gets topped up by “US$500” when you run out. Every few minutes, you get a popup that tells you that “Gabe Newell” sent you a “gift”. Accepting it gets you a random “game” added to your “library” for free.
Also, “games” that get added to your “library” come with some hours of playtime, as well as a pretty substantial number of achievements. Speaking of which, the simulation has its own list of achievements including some silly ones like having exactly zero in your wallet, or “buying” every last “game” via the sim.
The site is made by a dev going by Mike Wing, and you’ll see his watermark not only on the bottom right corner of the site, but also where the Steam logo should be. For some, this is a good enough alternative to the real deal. But the actual Steam Summer Sale of 2026 does come with pretty sizable discounts. You can, for instance, get almost the entirety of the Saints Row series for RM55.97, or just under US$14.
(Source: Steam Summer Sale simulator, Mike Wing / X)
