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Valve Rewrites Steam Wishlists and Makes Gifting Easier

The update lets non‑Steam buyers buy games from shared wishlist links or email with recipient-region pricing calculated at checkout.

Overview

  • The update, which rolled out Wednesday, July 22, 2026, adds custom wishlist categories and tags that users can filter, search and share as single views.
  • Shared category or filtered wishlist links can be opened by people without a Steam account so they can pick and buy gifts directly from a recipient's list.
  • Guest checkout is now allowed for any game on Steam, and buyers can send gifts to an email address that the recipient has 30 days to claim.
  • Steam will calculate the price in the recipient's region at checkout to simplify cross-region gifts, though some direct gift flows still require the sender and recipient to be Steam friends.
  • The update also adds UI touches to make discovery easier, including a Demo Available button, hover microtrailers, and per-category notification controls, and it builds on a 2024 guest-checkout rollout that had been limited to gift cards and hardware.