What Is a Steam All-Time Low? Why It Beats the Discount Percentage

When you shop for games on Steam, the first thing that grabs your eye is the red discount badge. See a number like -50%, -70%, or -90% and it feels like you should buy right now. But trusting that discount percentage alone gets you burned more often than you'd think. There's a more honest yardstick for telling whether something is genuinely cheap, and that's the all-time low. This article explains, in plain terms even a first-timer can follow, what the all-time low actually is and why you should look at it before the discount percentage.

What is an all-time low?

The all-time low is exactly what it sounds like: the lowest price a game has reached since it launched. For example, say a game came out at a 66,000 won list price, and over many sales it once dropped to 19,800 won. That 19,800 won is this game's all-time low. Put simply, it's a single number that remembers how cheap this game has ever gotten.

Why does that matter? Because what we really want to know is whether the price right now is a good price. To judge that, you need something to compare against, and the most honest benchmark is the cheapest price the game has actually reached. If today's price is close to that low, it's good timing; if it's sitting well above it, the game has been cheaper before.

Why the discount percentage (-70%) is a trap — inflated list prices

The discount percentage tells you how much was knocked off the list price. The problem is that setting the list price high automatically makes the percentage look bigger. Here's an example. Game A has a 22,000 won list price and is sold at 11,000 won with -50% off. Game B is sold at the same 11,000 won, but its list price is written as 44,000 won with a -75% tag. The money leaving your wallet is the same 11,000 won in both cases, yet B looks far cheaper. That's the discount-percentage illusion.

The point: the same -90% can mean 1,000 won on one game and 6,000 won on another. Look at the actual won amount that shows up at checkout, not the percentage.

Another common trap is the game that's 'on sale' all year round. 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 over the 'on sale now' label, since the price will very likely be the same at the next sale and the one after that. A discount badge shows none of this difference.

Why the all-time low is an honest yardstick

The all-time low makes a good benchmark because it's a number the seller can't inflate at will. List prices can be raised and lowered, but the price something has actually been sold for at its cheapest is a fact that already happened, so it can't be tampered with. Compare today's price to the all-time low and you can tell whether it's truly cheap without getting swayed by marketing copy.

Think of it this way. A shopkeeper can shout '70,000 won off the 100,000 won list price, now just 30,000 won!', but if that item actually sold for 20,000 won last year, then 30,000 won today isn't such a great deal. What you should remember is not the size of the cut but the cheapest price it has ever been. The all-time low is the number that remembers exactly that cheapest price.

1. Check the current price shown on screen right now (in won).
2. See what that game's all-time low was.
3. If the current price matches or is close to the all-time low, it's good timing.
4. If the current price is well above the all-time low, hold off even if the discount looks big.
5. If you're not in a hurry, wait for the next big sale and aim for a new all-time low.

How to see the all-time low on Lowstamp

Lowstamp shows each game's list price, current price, and all-time low side by side on a single line. That means you can tell at a glance how close today's price is to the cheapest it has ever been, without doing any math yourself. There's also a history graph that plots a dot only on the days the price changed, so you can quickly tell whether a game normally sits high and only drops once in a while (a real sale) or stays the same price all year (a permanent discount).

And 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. It's built to help you decide fast without getting shaken by a big red discount-percentage number. Wishlist the games you care about, and at the next sale you just need to check whether they've hit a new all-time low.

When it's fine to wait, and the 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. All-time lows are often set during these big sales, so if today's price is well above the low, waiting for the next major sale is frequently the better move. The exact dates shift year to year, though, so treat it only as a rough 'around this time' estimate.

If you buy and later feel you misjudged the price, there is 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. As a note, chasing down obscure third-party key sellers just because the genuine copy looks cheaper is not recommended — refunds and guarantees are hard to get and there can even be account risk, so buying on official Steam at the all-time low ends up being the safest route.

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

To sum up, the discount percentage can be made to look big just by inflating the list price, so it's hard to trust on its own. The all-time low, by contrast, is a fact that already happened, so it's an honest yardstick that can't be faked. When you buy a game, look first at how close the won amount you're paying is to the all-time low, not at the percentage on the red badge. Build that one habit and you won't be led around by sales — you'll only open your wallet when something is truly worth buying.