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Steam Families Explained: How to Share Games and Avoid the One-Year Wait
Steam Families lets up to six people in the same household share eligible games while keeping separate Steam accounts and achievements. Each member keeps their own saves, though saved-game support varies by game.
Before inviting anyone, check who can join and which games can be shared. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
How to set up Steam Families
You can create a family and invite up to five other members:
- Open Steam’s Account Details page.
- Select Family Management, then choose Create a Family.
- Give your family a name.
- Search for each member’s Steam account and send an invitation.
- Choose Adult or Child for each invitation.
You can also manage your family through Steam’s mobile app or website. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
Can two people play at the same time?
Yes. Family members can play different shared games at the same time. One person can play Portal 2 while another plays Half-Life if the family owns one copy of each.
To play the same shared game at the same time, the family needs two copies. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
Which games cannot be shared?
Not every Steam purchase can be shared. Before buying a game for your family, check its sharing eligibility.
Steam’s restrictions include:
- Games that require certain third-party accounts, keys, or subscriptions.
- Free-to-play games and their purchased DLC.
- Games or DLC blocked in another member’s region.
- Games that do not work on another member’s operating system.
- Games excluded by their publisher or marked private by their owner.
Steam’s official guide has the full details.
How does shared DLC affect saves?
Shared downloadable content (DLC) follows the copy of the game being played, when its publisher allows sharing.
Switching between copies with different DLC can affect whether your save works with that copy. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
What should parents know?
Adults can manage a child’s gaming by controlling which games they can access, setting playtime limits, viewing activity reports, and approving purchase requests.
Child accounts cannot leave a Steam Family on their own. Adults can also help recover a child’s account after the child has belonged to the family for at least 30 days. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
Can you leave or switch families?
Adults can leave whenever they want. However, they must wait one year from the date they joined their previous family before creating or joining a different one.
A family slot also has a one-year waiting period when someone leaves. You can rejoin your last family without waiting if it has room.
Steam intends the feature for close household members. Accounts that do not meet its household checks may be unable to join. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
Check before you invite
Invite only household members you trust. Steam warns that cheating or fraud by someone playing one of your shared games can affect your Family Sharing privileges and may result in a VAC ban on your account.
Review the sharing rules and each member’s role before confirming invitations. Steam’s official guide has the full details.
