Are you thinking “Is Steam down right now” or is there something wrong with my Steam app or home network? In this article, we’ll explain how to check if the Steam servers are down and what can you do to eliminate the possibilities on your end.
Steam is like a honey cone for gamers around the world. Steam assigns a wallet to the gamers at the time of the registration so they can use it to purchase and download their favorite games anytime they want. Furthermore, by downloading the Steam client app on their PC, players can play the games as well.
However, Steam servers are prone to issues resulting in outages that can go on from minutes to days. When this happens, Steam gamers panic and try all sorts of troubleshooting methods such as reinstalling the PC operating system to fix the error. Let us show you how to approach the issue correctly.
Why is Steam not working?
During the school breaks for summers and winters, Steam runs some sweet sales through discount deals. Quite often, at this particular time, a lot of players rush to the Steam game store to grab the limited-time game promotional opportunities that cause an enormous load on the servers.
When this happens, you can expect to have the same load on the Steam client app as the players have to play the games on it as well. Therefore, the Steam servers often go down due to:
- Technical errors caused by the huge user load
- Server upgrades to cope with the extra user load
How long are Steam servers usually down?
If you are using the Steam client application on your PC, you might have noticed that the service goes down quite often. Apart from the seasonal events such as summer and winter sales, Steam can experience unexpected server problems.
How to check Steam server status?
To understand the nature of the outage, you can visit the Downdetector website to confirm that other players are also affected by the same problem. If your suspicions are confirmed by a large number of users, you need to be patient and let the Steam tech guys work on the issue to fix the server as soon as possible.
Remember, any unexpected error on Steam can range from too many connection requests to faulty hardware. Therefore, the exact time frame for the fix is difficult to mention here. However, we’ve found out that most Steam outages last for a maximum of one day.
Does Steam go down every Tuesday?
The Steam servers go under regular maintenance every Tuesday. But this does not mean that the Steam client is out for the whole day. The scheduled maintenance starts anytime between 7 PM EST and does not take more than 10 minutes to complete.
Therefore, if it’s Tuesday and your Steam client application is not working, restart your PC and wait for 10 minutes. Next, launch the Steam client and see if the gaming platform is working fine again.
How can I play Steam games offline?
- Go to the Steam official webpage and log in with your credentials
- Check the “Remember my password” box on the login page
- Next, update your gaming files by launching and the games you want to play offline and then update them one by one
- Now click the Steam option in the upper left corner and navigate to Settings
- Click the Account option and make sure that “Don’t save account credentials on this computer” is unchecked
- Go back to the main Steam window and select Go offline
- Finally, choose the option to Restart Steam in offline mode
It is worth mentioning here that some Steam features that require internet services will not be available in offline mode.
How to troubleshoot Steam offline mode issues?
Sometimes, in offline mode, the Steam client app won’t bypass the login requirement. Therefore, you need to understand the offline nature of the Steam client to troubleshoot the errors associated with it.
If you are having issues while playing games on Steam in offline mode, try manually closing the Steam client app before shutting down your PC to avoid losing stored information. Also, always update the game files online to fix the initial game startup errors.
Remember, the games that require an external launcher through a network won’t work in Steam offline mode.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide aided you in figuring out the reasons why Steam is down right now. However, if the Steam servers are up and running, troubleshoot the Steam client issues by updating your network driver, switching your network, allowing Steam access through the firewall, or reinstalling the app.
