What Happens if a Game Gets Delisted on Steam?

Every once in a while, there are games that disappear from the Steam storefront. These titles are called "delisted", as their existence is wiped from the storefront, taking away the capability to purchase them.

Delistings have happened for plenty of reasons, many of which we've seen throughout the industry. From license expiration to broken titles and retiring games, there are many causes for a game to go delisted on Steam. We've seen edge cases where publisher and developer disputes have caused storefronts to go down, or errors where games are accidentally removed from the storefront momentarily.

But what really happens when a game is being delisted? Outside of the reasoning, essentially, the only thing that happens is that the game is removed from the storefront, essentially becoming a "discontinued" product. This means that it's no longer attainable, and the game becomes a collector's item for people to hold in their Steam library.

Licensing might cause a bit of an issue, and we've heard of cases — extremely rare ones — that have the game removed from a player's library. But, from my personal experience, owning several delisted items myself as a fledgling collector, they remain permanently there; playable, even, for those that weren't tied to a server that makes the product obsolete.

At the time of writing, the website Steam Tracker has recorded 7,782 titles that have been removed from the storefront entirely. Some were quite common titles that were replaced with new editions, like Metro 2033; some were because of the aforementioned license expiration, like John Wick Hex, and some were because they moved storefronts, like Fall Guys.

But in all cases, it's usually the same pattern: the team creates a delist announcement to let people know ahead of time. Sometimes, the game goes at a discount as a final "hurrah" for those who wanted to pick it up but never did. Then, they go offline on the Steam store page, still remaining in the library of prior owners who had it.

That's all you need to know about Steam delistings!