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Steam is a PC games distribution platform which, at its most basic level, serves as an online shop for purchasing and downloading games to your PC. There is a lot more to it than that, though, with the platform also functioning as an online hub where you collect your games, review them, and connect to other players through your profile and friends list.

When it comes to the sort of broadband connection you need for Steam, it would be fair to say the sky is the limit. However, there are a number of things to be wary of, depending on your hardware. In this guide we'll be looking at what you need to use Steam effectively, and what sort of broadband connection is ideal for the average Steam user.

What is Steam?

Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games. At its most basic level, Steam is an online store. However, like the Xbox Games Store or the PlayStation Store, it's also a launcher. A hub in which you collect your games – you can even add games not bought on Steam – and from which you can launch them. Your Steam profile also contains a friends list, so you can see who's online, who is playing what and so on. For some PC gamers, Steam is the only platform/launcher they want to use. It is also the oldest, starting life in 2003.

Sadly, not every PC game is available on Steam. Competing launchers such as the Epic Games Store, ​​GOG Galaxy and Ubisoft Play have been snagging exclusives for themselves in recent years in order to pull people across to their platform – a move that has many Steam purists in uproar. You can add games from any other launcher into Steam, but it has to be done manually and you won’t be able to use Steam features such as your friends list, reviews, in-game chat and so on in those games.

Community is easily 50% of what Steam is about. Building a game collection is all well and good, but it's the ability to read hundreds if not thousands of user reviews to inform your purchase, as well as maintain a list of friends playing the same games as you that really makes Steam the number one choice for many. It's been around since 2003 after all, and that means it has had a lot of time to mature.

Another keen feature of Steam is its 'Big Picture' mode. Big Picture mode is designed for use with your TV and game controller, so you can enjoy your Steam games from the comfort of your sofa. With the press of a button, Steam displays a new full-screen user interface which has been completely redesigned for readability and interaction on TV.

‘Big Picture’ mode can also be used on your usual computer display and basically makes your PC behave like a console. All you need to do is set 'Big Picture Mode' and 'Open Steam on startup' in the options and your PC will boot to a console-like interface where you can access most of Steam's features using a game controller (or mouse and keyboard if you'd prefer). The idea here is to provide a mode where you can use your PC the same way you'd use your console – in a living room/TV environment.

Steam also has a well-featured in-game overlay. Pressing SHIFT+TAB will bring up a collection of menus which hover over your gameplay. You can also enable in-game overlay by going to the Steam Client and choosing Settings/Preferences. In here you can access your friends list, send invites, set up screen capture or screen shots as well as a number of other quick access functions.

And although Steam does offer some Mac or Linux software, that's really not what it's about. Steam is and has always been primarily a Windows PC platform. It is, dare we say, essential to anyone who plays games on PC, and in terms of features, is light-years ahead of any competitor.

What do I need to use Steam?

You'll need a PC that's capable of gaming. That usually means a desktop or laptop PC that has a dedicated GPU (graphics processing unit). GPUs come in the form of (most commonly) a graphics card that plugs into your PC's PCIe slot. But you will also sometimes find GPUs integrated into the CPU (central processing unit) of your PC. These combined chips are called APUs (accelerated processing units).

Gaming on PC can be considerably more expensive than gaming on console on the hardware side of things, especially if you want a gaming PC capable of high resolutions and high graphics settings. However, games themselves, on Steam and other platforms, tend to be cheaper to the point that you will most likely save whatever excess you spent versus a console over the course of the PC's life. Here's a quick rundown of the bare necessities for gaming on Steam.

• A PC that's fit for gaming – As outlined above. Not just any PC will do. You will need one that has been built with at least one eye on its ability to run games
• A reasonably fast internet connection – With Steam being a purely online platform (boxed games barely exist these days and most modern PCs don't have optical disc drives) you'll be downloading your games. With modern triple-A titles weighing in at anywhere between 20GB and 250GB in size, a fast internet connection is going to be useful if you don't want to have to wait days for a download to complete
• A Steam account – You will need a Steam account. This is where you will set up your user profile and all games purchased will be attached to it. For this you will need a valid payment method if you want to buy games from the store, though feasibly, if you are a child, say, you will be able to get by on gifted Steam download codes
• Game control devices – You will need a means to control your games. All PC games allow control via mouse and keyboard, though this is less than ideal for some game types. Hack and slash, flight, driving and some RPGs just work better via a controller. Steam allows you to use an Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch Pro, Logitech Wireless GamePad, generic PC, or Steam controller manufactured by Valve themselves. Though you should check your PC has bluetooth or whatever additional requirements there are for connecting your specific controller

How fast does my broadband need to be?

The act of gaming online actually requires very little bandwidth, with the most demanding multiplayer titles getting through roughly 3Mbps per hour. If you take a look around the web at the answer to this question, 'as fast as possible' when talking about game downloads on Steam is the most common answer. But it's not quite that simple.

You see, downloads can only run as fast as your computer can save the data onto a physical local drive. Not long ago, this wouldn't have been a consideration, since download speeds were much slower than the write speed of your average PC hard drive. But these days, speeds of up to 1Gbps download are becoming more and more common throughout the UK, and this creates a problem for older PC hardware. So, here is what you will need to make the most use out of your broadband connection.

If you have ADSL broadband

ADSL typically runs an average speed of around 11Mbps. Even the slowest PC hard drives will be able to keep up with this, so if you have ADSL there are no considerations on the hardware side of things when downloading games from Steam.

If your broadband is 'superfast' fibre

Entry-level fibre, with an average download speed of 36Mbps will create no problems even for old, slow hard drives. However, the faster the fibre you have, the more likely this is going to be to cause a bottleneck on a traditional hard disk drive (HDD). Speeds of over 100Mbps such as those available from Virgin Media, are likely to be slowed because your HDD can't keep up.

There are two other types of hard drive to consider in these cases. The first is a solid state drive, or SSD. This will attach to your PC, either internally or externally, and has no physical moving parts. SSDs are more expensive for the storage you get, but will be able to keep up with most of the faster speeds you will get from Virgin Media.

If you have gigabit or ultrafast broadband

The third type of drive you'll commonly find in a modern PC is called NVMe M.2. This is a card-like storage drive that plugs directly into your PC's motherboard with no cables. It is often hidden in its own covered housing, which also helps disspate the heat it generates. These things are lightning-fast, but also the most expensive storage there is. An NVMe drive will easily keep up with 1Gbps downloads.

Alternatives to Steam

Steam – much to the chagrin of Steam users – is no longer the only game in town when it comes to launchers/stores to buy and play PC games. Every big publisher now has their own launcher, some of which with exclusive games that will force you to use them.

• Ubisoft Connect – Previously known as Ubisoft Store/uPlay, this revamped platform allows you to connect with players across all platforms, for all games. Most Ubisoft games are available on Steam, and you can also subscribe to Ubisoft+ (formerly uPlay+), a monthly subscription service to access all of Ubisoft’s games online for a set monthly fee.
• Rockstar Launcher – Offers only Rockstar Games, which is a pretty short list on PC. Only Red Dead Online, Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA V, L.A. Noire, L.A. Noire: the VR Case Files, and Bully are available. Rockstar made it so RDR2 is only available via its own launcher, which naturally annoyed Steam users
• GOG Galaxy – Is a launcher from CD Projekt Red, the developer and publisher behind The Witcher series, Cyberpunk 2077, Ys IX: Monstrum Now, and Baldur's Gate 3. Its best feature is it allows you to actually connect all these other launchers and launch your games from one place
• EA Desktop App – Although currently in beta until its upcoming worldwide release later in 2021, EA Desktop App is available for early access. Formerly called EA Access and Origin Access, you'll find mostly EA games to purchase here. EA also offers EA Play and EA Play Pro, monthly subscription services that allow you to download and play available EA Games. The main difference between the two subscription services is the number of games you can access, as Play Pro subscribers will get full access to new releases, and all available titles.
• Xbox Game Pass – Is a launcher bringing together titles from a wide array of publishers including EA and Bethesda. Xbox Game Pass for PC offers almost everything on the store to download and play for a fixed monthly fee and is one of the better offerings as it pulls in titles beyond just the ones it publishes itself, and its monthly fee is very low
• The Bethesda Store – Is one of the least developed launchers. There aren't a huge amount of Bethesda titles out there, so you won't be using this one a lot. We imagine the Bethesda launcher will be axed at some point. Since Bethesda has been bought by Microsoft, their games are now available via Gamepass PC
• Epic Games Store – Is famous right now for throwing large amounts of money at certain developers and publishers to obtain exclusive rights to sell games on its store. This makes the Epic Games Store a necessity, which is an annoyance for many since it is very under-developed compared to Steam

How to save money on Steam

Buying new games from the Steam store for retail MSRP prices is not the best way to be frugal. There are a few different ways to purchase games on Steam that can and will save you money. They are…

Buy to try, refund where necessary

Steam has an excellent refund policy. Basically, if you buy a game, play it for under two hours, then decide you don't like it, you can get an instant refund with just a few clicks. You won't need to justify it to anyone, you just need to click the box, say you didn't like it and you're done. This allows you to try out games you're not sure about to see if they're for you. Which will ultimately save you money.

Wait for a sale

Steam holds regular sales. The big ones used to be four times a year and labelled by season, but now they’ve doubled to eight to celebrate other big regional holidays and events. This means you’ll have heavily discounted games available every 1-2 months through Steam sales. But year-round, there is always something on sale. In the main Steam interface, just click 'Specials' to see games with reduced pricing at any given time. The amounts to be saved during a Steam sale are not trivial. If the game is a year or two old, you could be saving up to 90% on the asking price in some cases.

Purchase a Steam key from a reliable third party

A Steam 'key' is a code that allows you to download and own a game from the Steam store. These are useful for gifting games to others on the one hand, but there are also sites out there that purchase these keys in large quantities and at reduced pricing. You can then purchase one of these keys from them. A site we recommend for this is CDKeys.com as we have always found them to be reliable.

Even brand new games have money knocked off if you go this way. So what's the catch? Simple. There are no refunds. If you buy a game this way then decide you don't like it, Steam's excellent refund policy doesn't apply. So you're saving money in exchange for greater risk, in short.

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