How to Spot Fake Steam Sale Discounts

When a Steam sale kicks off, the screen fills with red discount badges. See a number like -80% or -90% and you feel like you'll lose out if you don't buy right now. But that big number doesn't always mean a game is genuinely cheap. It's surprisingly common to inflate the list price so the discount percentage looks bigger, or to slap a sale tag on something that's sold at the exact same price all year round. This article lays out concrete ways to spot these fake discounts.

A big discount percentage doesn't mean cheap — inflated list prices

The discount percentage tells you how much was knocked off the list price, so if the list price is set high, the percentage naturally looks big too. For example, taking a game with a 22,000 won list price and selling it at 11,000 won with -50% off, versus bumping the list price up to 44,000 won and selling at that same 11,000 won with a -75% tag — the money leaving your wallet is identical. But the second one looks far cheaper. That's why you should look at the actual price you'll pay first, not the discount percentage.

Quick check: the same -90% can mean 1,000 won on one game and 6,000 won on another. Compare the won amount that shows up at checkout, not the percentage.

The 'always on sale' permanent discount

The second trap is games that are almost always on sale. Quite a few titles essentially lock in a price like -75% from some point after release and keep it there. There's no reason to rush just because the page says 'on sale now' — the price will very likely be the same at the next sale, and the one after that. The opposite kind of game, one that rarely discounts but drops briefly only during the big seasonal sales, is the one where that moment is a real opportunity.

The surest way to tell them apart is to look at the price history — how the price has moved over time. If the price line has been glued to the bottom for the past year or two, it's a permanent discount; if it normally sits high and only drops sharply once in a while, that's a game with real sale timing.

The benchmark is the all-time low — the one line that settles whether it's really cheap

The simplest benchmark for filtering out fake discounts in one shot is the all-time low. Just see how close the current price is to the lowest price the game has ever reached. If the current price matches or beats the all-time low, there's little reason to hesitate; if it's well above the all-time low, then no matter how big the discount percentage looks, it just means the game has been cheaper before.

1. Check the current price shown on screen right now (in won).
2. Find out what that game's all-time low was.
3. If the current price matches or comes close to the all-time low, it's good timing; if it's well above, hold off.
4. If you can wait, hold out until the next big sale and aim for a new all-time low.

Lowstamp shows each game's list price, current price, and all-time low side by side, and with a history graph that records only the days the price changed, you can tell at a glance whether something is a permanent discount or a real sale. The 'Should I buy now?' verdict is exactly this — it measures the distance between the current price and the all-time low and stamps a call on it, so you can decide fast without getting swayed by a big discount-percentage number.

Sale timing and the refund safety net

Steam usually runs its biggest sales in summer and winter, with mid-sized sales around spring, fall, and holiday periods — a rhythm that tends to repeat every year. The exact dates shift from year to year, though, so treat it only as a rough 'around this time' estimate. All-time lows are most often set during these big sales, so if you're not in a hurry, waiting for the next major sale is frequently the better move.

And if you buy and later feel you misjudged the price, there's a safety net. Under Steam's official policy, you can request a refund within a certain window after purchase as long as your playtime is short (the specific conditions follow Steam's policy and can change, so check directly on the refund request screen). If you think you bought the wrong thing, looking into a refund quickly is one way out.

Don't look at the big red number — look at how close what you're paying is to the all-time low.

To sum up, avoiding fake discounts comes down to three things. First, look at the actual amount you'll pay instead of the discount percentage. Second, check the price history to tell a permanent discount from a real sale. Third, compare the current price to the all-time low to judge whether it's genuinely cheap. Build these habits and you won't be led around by the red sale badges — you'll only open your wallet when something is truly worth buying. Wishlist the games you're interested in ahead of time, and at the next sale just check whether they've hit a new all-time low, and you won't miss the best moment.