Steam hit a wall on December 24, just as gamers geared up for holiday play. Starting around 1PM ET, the platform went dark for many users, with issues spanning the store, game servers, and key Valve titles like Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2.
Steam outage hits store, apps, and online play
The disruption was widespread. According to SteamDB’s unofficial tracking, the Steam Store, Community pages, and Web API all dropped offline. Valve didn’t comment publicly, but the user reports poured in fast. DownDetector logged over 6,000 complaints within the first 15 minutes of the outage.
The issue wasn’t limited to desktop either. Mobile and Mac users also saw the platform stall or fail to connect. Even Valve’s own games struggled. Players of Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, and Counter-Strike 2 noticed instability or full disconnections.
Valve’s recovery effort begins slowly
Steam started showing signs of life by 4PM ET. While the platform became mostly usable on PC and mobile by 6PM, it still wasn’t running smoothly. Pages loaded slowly, and some games only worked intermittently. According to SteamDB, many online services remained spotty well into the night.
That said, by 4AM on December 25, everything seemed back to normal. Store pages are loaded without delays. Game servers were online. And Valve’s APIs, essential for matchmaking and game data had returned to full strength.
Steam games like Dota 2 and CS2 hit hardest
While the outage impacted all of Steam’s major features, it hit competitive online games the hardest. Players of titles relying on Valve’s backend services saw timeouts, disconnects, or were unable to matchmake at all.
Here’s what was affected during the outage:
- Steam Store (desktop and mobile)
- Steam Community and Web APIs
- Online features for Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, CS2
- Valve’s mobile and Mac clients
- Matchmaking and player stats syncing
Steam outage ends, but reminders linger
This wasn’t Steam’s first stumble. Just two months ago, the platform dropped for about an hour. Earlier in September, the launch of Hollow Knight: Silksong briefly took down Steam, Xbox, and Nintendo’s eShop under the weight of player demand.
But outages this wide-reaching always sting. Especially during a holiday weekend. Whether Valve bolsters infrastructure behind the scenes or not, it’s a reminder: when Steam sneezes, the whole PC gaming scene catches a cold.
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