Steam tags: how to choose and order your 20 tags

Tags are more than labels on your store page. Valve says Steam uses them to decide which browse pages you appear on, which games it treats as similar to yours, which tag pages you show up on and what appears in the "More Like This" section. During Next Fest, Valve also uses your tags, along with the categories you chose at registration, to sort your game into the fest's sections.

In short, tags tell Steam who to show your game to. Get them wrong and you get shown to the wrong players, who ignore you, while the right players never see you at all.

• At least 5 tags are required before launch, and Valve recommends adding up to 20.
• Only the top 20 count. More tags can be applied, but only the top 20 are visible and used for visibility.
• Order matters. Tags are weighted, and the most heavily weighted ones influence your visibility most. Your top 5 should "paint a fairly clear picture" of the game, and some store filters only look at the first 15.
• Players add tags too. Players and Steam moderators can tag your game, and as more players apply a tag, its weight goes up. You can remove inaccurate ones.
• Demos inherit the base game's tags. Fix tags on the main game and your Next Fest demo follows.

This is the single most useful idea in Valve's tag documentation. Some recommendation algorithms give more weight to less common tags. A tag like "Action" barely matters for recommendations because so many games have it. A tag like "Party-Based RPG" carries much more weight because fewer games share it.

The Tag Wizard's own Suggest Prioritization feature reflects this: it moves high-information tags like sub-genres to the top and pushes low-information ones like "Indie" or "Singleplayer" to the bottom. You do not need to delete broad tags, just make sure they are not taking up your top slots.

For recommendations, Valve also notes that the overlap between tags matters more than order. A game tagged both "Open World" and "Fantasy" is more likely to be recommended to players who have played other games with both tags.

1. Find 5 to 10 comparable games. Pick games your players also love, ideally recent indies rather than huge hits. Note the tags on each store page.
2. Start with the most specific genre. Valve's example is Super Meat Boy: Action, then Platformer, then Precision Platformer. The sub-genre is the most valuable tag you have.
3. Add visual properties. 2D, 2.5D or 3D; perspective such as Top-Down or First-Person; style such as Pixel Graphics or Stylized.
4. Add theme and mood. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Post-apocalyptic; Atmospheric, Relaxing, Funny.
5. Add features and activities. Deckbuilding, Base Building, Procedural Generation, Choices Matter, Crafting.
6. Add player support. Co-op, Online Co-Op, Singleplayer, Controller support where relevant.
7. Order them. Sub-genre and the most distinctive features at the top. Broad tags like Indie, Casual or Singleplayer lower down.

• Aspirational tags. Tagging a linear game "Open World" or a short game "Replay Value" sends players who expect something else. They bounce, and you lose the visibility you were hoping for.
• Trend chasing. Adding a popular tag you only loosely fit puts you next to games you cannot compete with.
• Filler at the top. "Indie", "Great Soundtrack" and "Singleplayer" in your top 5 tell Steam almost nothing about who should see you.
• Player tags you disagree with. Valve gives the example of "Family Friendly" on a horror game. Remove those through the Tag Wizard or the flag icon on your store page.

Imagine a small team making a pixel-art game where you run a haunted lighthouse, upgrading it between nights while fending off sea creatures. A first draft of tags might start with Indie, Singleplayer, Pixel Graphics, Horror and Strategy. None of those are wrong, but they describe thousands of games.

A stronger top 5 would lead with the most specific genre and the hook: Tower Defense, Base Building, Roguelite, Pixel Graphics, Horror. Further down come theme and mood tags such as Lovecraftian, Atmospheric and Dark, features such as Resource Management and Procedural Generation, and finally the broad ones like Indie, 2D and Singleplayer. Each tag is still accurate, but now the first few tell Steam, and shoppers, exactly what kind of game it is.

Then check the result against reality. Open the "More Like This" section on your page after the change settles. If the games shown are ones your players would also enjoy, your tags are working. If they are not, revisit the order.

Valve offers a Developer Preview page before each Next Fest so you can see which sections your game falls into. If you are in the wrong section, compare your tags with the fest's categories and adjust them. Tag changes publish separately from your store page, so they will not push out any unfinished page edits.

Your short description should match your top tags too. If your first tag is Roguelite, the word roguelite should appear early in your description. Our guide to writing a Steam short description explains why, and the Next Fest page checklist covers the rest of the page.

Tags are translated automatically. Valve's example is that "RPG" is shown as "Rollespil" to Danish users, with the order unchanged. Your description, capsule text and screenshots are not translated for you, though. If you want those players to wishlist, our Steam store page localisation translates your page into 5 or all 12 major Steam languages.

Paste your Steam URL into our free Steam tag checker to flag filler tags and get more specific suggestions, or run a free Steam page audit to see how your tags score alongside your capsule, description, trailer and screenshots. Browse all free Steam tools for more.

How many tags should a Steam game have?

Valve requires at least 5 before launch and recommends up to 20. Only the top 20 are shown and used for visibility, so fill all 20 with accurate tags.

Does the order of Steam tags matter?

Yes. Tags are weighted and the top ones influence visibility most. Your top 5 should clearly describe the game, and some store filters only use the first 15.

Can players change my Steam tags?

Players and moderators can add tags, and popular player tags gain weight. As the developer you can remove inaccurate tags using the Tag Wizard or the flag icon on your store page.

Do Steam demos have their own tags?

No. A demo inherits the tags of its base game, so fix the base game's tags before Next Fest.