Steam Adds Clarifying Documentation Regarding What Ads Are Allowed In Games On The Platform

Although it’s been the case for a few years now that games with paid ads or paywalls aren’t allowed on the Steam platform, there hasn't been a page on the platform’s site dedicated to detailing what’s allowed and what’s not. Until now, that is. That’s not to say there wasn’t information about this before. It was just, as SteamDB pointed out on BlueSky, included in the FAQ.

Now, there’s an official page on the platform dedicated to outlining what types of advertising are or are not allowed. Effectively, paid advertising it out. Of particular note, players shouldn’t have to worry about being forced to watch ads before they can continue with their game.

Interestingly, the page also has a clause stating that developers shouldn’t charge other devs for access to Steam features such as pages and bundles.

Valve has created a dedicated page describing that in-game ads or ad-based revenue models are not allowed in Steam games. This has been reported as a new policy, but this has been the case for at least 5 years as seen on the pricing page, there just wasn't a separate page.

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— SteamDB (@steamdb.info) February 10, 2025 at 4:43 AM

This doesn’t mean that devs can’t do any advertising at all. The page also includes a list of things that are allowed such as non-disruptive product placement and cross promotions.