Game Sales Calendar: Steam Sales, Black Friday and Seasonal Deals
Welcome to episode eighteen of Respawn Games Daily! Ryan is about to pay full price in mid November, and John and Tyler stop him — because game sales are not random weather, they run on a calendar. First, why the calendar exists at all, and Steam's published cycle of four storewide seasonal sales, with the confirmed dates: the Winter Sale from December 17 to January 4, the Spring Sale in March and the Summer Sale in late June, the 10 a.m. Pacific switch-over, themed festivals, publisher sales and Next Fest in between. Then the Black Friday plot twist: Black Friday is November 27 and Cyber Monday November 30, Steam has no storewide Black Friday sale since the Autumn Sale moved to early October, and the season belongs to consoles, retailers and hardware — PlayStation Store Black Friday deals running November 4 to 30 at up to 75% off, the Microsoft Store sale November 19 to 28, and Nintendo's eShop sale from November 19 with retail deals and $50 off the Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle. Then the full console tour — PlayStation's Days of Play and holiday sale, Xbox's Spring Sale, Ultimate Game Sale and Countdown Sale plus weekly deals, Nintendo's rare and shallow first-party discounts and why retailers are where its players save, plus Epic's Mega Sale, GOG and mobile — and a month-by-month walk through the whole year of deals. Then the toolbox: SteamDB price history and historical lows, IsThereAnyDeal across 30+ authorized stores with its price-target waitlist, DekuDeals for Nintendo, PSPrices and CheapShark, and the two-minute deal check that answers whether a price is actually good, will probably get cheaper, and when. It all lands in a system — a ranked wishlist, target prices, alerts and calm buy rules — proven on three worked examples: a year-old game in a November cart, a modest Nintendo discount that is secretly a historical low, and a launch game no sale is coming to save.
Sources: Researched and written for this show from free US gaming coverage and official documentation, cross-checked across Valve's Steamworks seasonal sales documentation and published event schedule (four storewide seasonal sales a year; Winter Sale December 17, 2026 to January 4, 2027; Spring Sale March 18 to 25, 2027; Summer Sale June 24 to July 8, 2027; Autumn Sale October 1 to 8, 2026; events switching at 10 a.m. Pacific; no storewide Steam Black Friday sale after the Autumn Sale's move to early October), PlayStation Blog sale announcements via US games coverage (Black Friday Deals November 4 to 30, 2026, up to 75% off; Days of Play May 27 to June 10, 2026), Microsoft Store Black Friday guidance (November 19 to 28, 2026), Nintendo's announced US offers (eShop sale from November 19; retail game deals November 22 to 29; $50 off the Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle November 22 to December 5), Epic Mega Sale 2026 dates (May 14 to June 11), and the documented features of the SteamDB, IsThereAnyDeal, DekuDeals, PSPrices and CheapShark price trackers, plus IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, GamesRadar+ and Kotaku sale-season coverage.
Disclosure: The hosts of this show are AI voices, and the script was researched and written for this show.
Audio: MP3, 128 kbps CBR, 44.1 kHz, mono, -16 LUFS.
