The 20 Essential Games You Should Pick Up During The Steam Spring Sale 2025

Following the initial run of genre-specific sales and specials on Valve’s Steam marketplace, the first major sale of 2025 kicked off this week courtesy of the Steam Spring Sale. Steam typically holds at least 4 major seasonal sales each year, and as you might expect, these events are usually one of the best times players have to pick up a score of excellent games at heavily reduced prices. Late last year, we highlighted the best games for players to pick up during the customary end-of-the-year Steam Winter Sale, and the onset of the Steam Spring Sale for 2025 has now inspired us to comb through the available discounts and cherry-pick the best titles that players should pick up, many of which are either at their lowest-recorded prices or on their first-ever discounts.

From newer classics and recent major AAA hits to some more under-the-radar titles that players might have missed, we’ve highlighted a wide variety of games that encompass a range of genres and playstyles. To help break this list down further, we’ve separated these games based on their current pricing as of the Steam Spring Sale, as well as noted the depth of their current discounts. It’s also worth noting that several of the games on this list (most, if not all) can run fairly well on the Steam Deck, allowing players who only have a handheld gaming PC to get in on the fun. As a reminder, the Steam Spring Sale runs until March 20, 2025, at 10 am PT, so don’t wait too long before these deals slip through your fingers.

Games Under $60

Dynasty Warriors: Origins

• Release Date — January 16, 2025
• Publisher — Koei Tecmo
• Developer — Koei Tecmo
• Genre — Action, Hack-and-Slash, Musou
• Steam User Score — 93% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 20% ($55.99)

Despite having just released in January of this year, the excellent Dynasty Warriors: Origins is already available for its first-ever discounted price of $55.99, coming in at 20% off its normal MSRP of $69.99. For those who are unfamiliar with the Dynasty Warriors series, it’s a long-running franchise of “Musou” games that pit a lone hero against hundreds (or even thousands) of foes in sweeping historical battles that pull directly from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms-era of Chinese history. Dynasty Warriors: Origins is both a sort of soft reboot for the franchise and the best the series has been in years, mixing classic Dynasty Warriors gameplay with some incredibly impressive visuals, polish, and supremely satisfying combat that moves beyond the more brainless “hack-and-slash” of past entries.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

• Release Date — October 10, 2024
• Publisher — Sega
• Developer — Atlus
• Genre — JRPG
• Steam User Score — 91% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 25% ($52.49)

There’s a strong case to be made that Atlus and Studio Zero’s Metaphor: ReFantazio is both the best RPG of 2024 and the best game to release that same year, so it’s worth paying attention to the fact that the title is at its best-ever discount on Steam, coming in at a very reasonably priced $52.49 compared to its normal $69.99 price point. While the general progression mechanics and combat will feel familiar to anyone who has played the newer Shin Megami Tensei and Persona titles, the story, atmosphere, and setting are classic high fantasy that immediately stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the best games in the JRPG genre. If you’re even remotely a fan of RPGs and have yet to grab Metaphor, now is the best time to experience one of the best role-playing games in decades.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

• Release Date — January 23, 2025
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Developer — Square Enix
• Genre — Action RPG, JRPG
• Steam User Score — 77% (Mostly Positive)
• Discount — 30% ($48.99)

Square Enix’s Game of the Year nominee and second chapter in its impressive Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy only just arrived on PC at the beginning of the year, and it’s already heavily discounted as part of the Steam Spring Sale. This middle portion of the classic Final Fantasy VII story makes great strides toward improving the reinvention of one of the all-time great RPGs with its massive and dense open world, recreating one of the best RPG settings in stunning graphical fidelity and only improving upon the already excellent combat of Final Fantasy VII Remake. While the PC port of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has been subject to some criticism regarding its optimization, the core gameplay of the PS5 version is still intact and worth experiencing for longtime Final Fantasy VII fans and newcomers alike.

Silent Hill 2

• Release Date — October 8, 2024
• Publisher — Konami
• Developer — Bloober Team SA
• Genre — Survival Horror
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Discount — 30% ($48.99)

Bloober Team’s near-perfect remake of the timeless survival horror classic Silent Hill 2 was another of 2024’s best games, and it joins both Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Metaphor: ReFantazio as one of last year’s more critically acclaimed titles to receive a discount as part of the Steam Spring Sale. Silent Hill 2 is both an excellent survival horror game and an impeccable remake, retaining the same basic structure and story beats as the PS2 original while updating the visuals and combat to something more in line with modern survival horror games. As a result, the title straddles the line between nostalgic homage and modern reinvention, and it’s absolutely worth picking up at full price. Thankfully, it’s currently 30% off, making an already sweet deal much more enticing.

Games Under $45

Ghost of Tsushima – Director’s Cut

• Release Date — May 16, 2024
• Publisher — PlayStation Publishing LLC
• Developer — Sucker Punch Productions, Nixxes Software
• Genre — Action-adventure, Open-world
• Steam User Score — 93% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 33% ($40.19)

We’ve had no shortage of historical open-world action games set in Japan in recent years. But even with Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ release right around the corner and Rise of the Ronin having just arrived on PC this week, it’s still worth picking up the impeccable Ghost of TsushimaDirector’s Cut. Ghost of Tsushima covers an interesting period in Japan’s history, chronicling the first Mongolian invasion of the isolationist island nation in the 13th century, and it ticks all the boxes that one would want from an open-world adventure. Unlike a lot of other open-world games that are very map-marker driven, Ghost of Tsushima places exploration and organic discovery at the forefront, and it stands as a magical and immersive experience as a result. Not to mention, the game’s combat is second to none.

Dragon’s Dogma II

• Release Date — March 21, 2024
• Publisher — Capcom
• Developer — Capcom
• Genre — Action RPG, Open-world
• Steam User Score — 61% (Mixed)
• Discount — 43% ($39.89)

One of the best deals to be had in the Steam Spring Sale is the current deepest discount for Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma 2, the stunning follow-up to the studio’s cult-favorite 2012 game. While Dragon’s Dogma fans might have largely been somewhat disappointed by the fact that Dragon’s Dogma 2 represents a bit of a missed opportunity (mostly thanks to its place as a sort of “remake” of the original game), there’s no denying that it’s an action RPG unlike any other.

Ninja Gaiden II Black

• Release Date — January 23, 2025
• Publisher — Koei Tecmo
• Developer — Koei Tecmo, Team Ninja
• Genre — Character Action, Hack-and-Slash
• Steam User Score — 79% (Mostly Positive)
• Discount — 20% ($39.99)

Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja surprised longtime Ninja Gaiden fans earlier this year with both the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4 coming later in 2025 and the shadow drop of Ninja Gaiden II Black. An Unreal Engine 5 remaster of the 2008 classic Ninja Gaiden II, Ninja Gaiden II Black is much more than a brand-new (and, admittedly, gorgeous) coat of paint. Instead, it strikes a perfect balance between the more accessible adjustments to difficulty from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and the original brutality and steep difficulty curve of the original Ninja Gaiden II on Xbox 360. Accordingly, Ninja Gaiden II Black is both the best-looking and best-playing version of Ninja Gaiden II, and its current discount leaves no excuse to not pick up this timeless character action classic.

Games Under $30

Eternal Strands

• Release Date — January 28, 2025
• Publisher — Yellow Brick Games
• Developer — Yellow Brick Games
• Genre — Action-adventure, Open-world, Action RPG
• Steam User Score — 89% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 25% ($29.99)

One of the most surprising releases of January 2025 was Yellow Brick Games’ Eternal Strands, which mixes a slew of disparate gameplay influences into a wholly unique and incredibly enjoyable action RPG. Part Monster Hunter, part Shadow of the Colossus, and part The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Eternal Strands is an expedition-based action RPG about slaying large monsters and using their materials to craft increasingly powerful gear and weapons, but it also features a fittingly adept story from the mind of co-director Mike Laidlaw, who is responsible for both Jade Empire and Dragon Age from his tenure at BioWare. Eternal Strands is currently on its first-ever discount of 25% off, and it’s absolutely worth picking up for fans of any of the aforementioned games.

No Rest for the Wicked

• Release Date — April 18, 2024
• Publisher — Moon Studios
• Developer — Moon Studios
• Genre — Action RPG, Soulslike
• Steam User Score — 75% (Mostly Positive)
• Discount — 30% ($27.99)

After working on both the Ori games (which happen to rank among some of the greatest Metroidvanias of all time), few would have expected Moon Studios to release a difficult action RPG that blends elements of Diablo and Dark Souls. That game, No Rest for the Wicked, has had an interesting first several months of Early Access, including the game switching hands from now-defunct publisher Private Division to being owned outright by Moon Studios, and it only continues to improve with each subsequent update. While the game does have some lingering performance issues that seem to put even high-quality rigs through their paces, No Rest for the Wicked‘s gameplay is the same level of quality you’d expect from Ori‘s developers, and its current discount makes it an easy pick-up.

Satisfactory

• Release Date — September 10, 2024
• Publisher — Coffee Stain Publishing
• Developer — Coffee Stain Studios
• Genre — Base Building, Automation, Open-world
• Steam User Score — 97% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Discount — 30% ($27.99)

Automation base-building games are perhaps one of the newest and most popular genres on Steam, as evidenced by the runaway success of titles like Factorio, Microtopia, and the currently-on-sale Satisfactory. Of those three games, Satisfactory affords perhaps the best balance of base-building, open-world exploration, survival crafting, and satisfying automation, giving players the (apropos) satisfaction of running their own interplanetary factory. Given how successful Satisfactory has been on Steam (more than 5.5 million units sold since entering Early Access), it’s not often that the game goes on sale, and its current 30% off sale price makes it hard to pass up.

Remnant II

• Release Date — July 25, 2023
• Publisher — Arc Games
• Developer — Gunfire Games
• Genre — Third-person Shooter, Soulslike
• Steam User Score — 83% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 50% ($24.99)

I recently named Remnant II as one of the best non-FromSoftware Soulslike games, and in a moment of kismet, the title is currently on sale for 50% off. Even in just its base version (excluding the many DLC expansions and free updates the title has received since launch), Remnant II offers hundreds of hours of gameplay that is sure to please any fan of third-person shooters, Soulslikes, or both. There are 14 distinct classes to choose from in Remnant II, each of which has its own unique upgrade paths and build potential, and the game is even better in co-op than it is as a solo player. Like several other games on this list, Remnant II is a smart pick-up even at full price, which makes its current discount the perfect reason to pick it up if you haven’t yet.

Games Under $20

Echo Point Nova

• Release Date — September 24, 2024
• Publisher — Greylock Studio
• Developer — Greylock Studio
• Genre — FPS, Open-world, Co-op
• Steam User Score — 98% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Discount — 33% ($16.74)

After recently picking up an action roguelike, that title’s Steam Store Page’s “More Like This” section recommended Greylock Studio’s Echo Point Nova, and grabbing it has provided one of my most pleasant surprises of 2025. Part Titanfall 2, part Minecraft, and part The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Echo Point Nova is an impressively large open-world FPS that emphasizes swift movement and traversal in between its tactile and satisfying shooting segments. From what I’ve played so far, there are seemingly no limits to the player’s expression in Echo Point Nova other than the distance between its airborne islands and the bounds of the player’s imagination, and its shooting has the same sort of feel as Free Radical’s Timesplitters series, striking a perfect balance between tactical precision and arcade speed.

NieR: Automata

• Release Date — March 17, 2017
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Developer — Square Enix, Platinum Games
• Genre — Action RPG, Hack-and-Slash, Character Action
• Steam User Score — 88% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 60% ($15.99)

There’s so much that’s already been said about Yoko Taro’s NieR: Automata that it doesn’t bear repeating here, but suffice it to say, it’s one of the greatest action RPGs of all time. It also happens to be so much more than that, almost defying classification at every turn. While one moment NieR: Automata might play similarly to one of Platinum Games’ other character action titles, the next it might transition into a shmup or a semi-open-world action-adventure game, all while incorporating one of the best narratives in gaming. NieR: Automata regularly goes on discount as part of Steam’s annual sales, but its current price of $15.99 is one of its best yet and makes it almost impossible to ignore as a worthwhile pick-up.

Red Dead Redemption II

• Release Date — December 5, 2019
• Publisher — Rockstar Games
• Developer — Rockstar Games
• Genre — Action-adventure, Open-world
• Steam User Score — 92% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 75% ($14.99)

Rockstar Games is responsible for some of the most important and successful games of the last several generations, but there’s every chance that 2019’s Red Dead Redemption II will go down as the studio’s magnum opus. Part open-world action-adventure game and part Wild West RPG, Red Dead Redemption II takes everything players loved about the first game in the series and builds upon it, from its incredibly deep and rewarding gameplay to its all-timer of a story that delivers a compelling prequel to the original Red Dead Redemption. RDR2 is typically $19.99 when it hits the annual Steam sales, but its current price of $14.99 is its best yet and makes it a no-brainer to pick up if you don’t already have it in your library.

Games Under $10

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

• Release Date — June 21, 2021
• Publisher — Binary Haze Interactive
• Developer — Live Wire, Adglobe
• Genre — Metroidvania, Soulslike
• Steam User Score — 94% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 60% ($9.99)

The Steam Spring Sale is host to several unmissable Metroidvania titles, but the best of them all is arguably Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights. One of several of a new class of “Soulsvanias” that borrows heavily from Hollow Knight‘s genre-blending, Ender Lilies is an incredibly atmospheric and beautiful game that has some supremely satisfying platforming and combat to back up its style. Live Wire just released a sequel to Ender Lilies this year with Ender Magnolia (which also happens to be on sale), but this first game in the series is potentially superior. And at 60% off, it’s one of the best budget-friendly Metroidvanias available as part of the Steam Spring Sale.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

• Release Date — December 3, 2019
• Publisher — Xbox Game Studios
• Developer — 343 Industries, Bungie, Ruffian Games, Saber Interactive, Splash Damage
• Genre — FPS
• Steam User Score — 92% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 75% ($9.99)

Almost every Steam sale,the Halo Master Chief Collection goes on sale. And for as long as it does, I will continue to recommend it as an essential pick-up for anyone who doesn’t already own it. Containing a staggering amount of gameplay hours between its many single-player campaigns and revolutionary multiplayer modes, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is quite possibly the best “bang for your buck” in the Steam Spring Sale and a time capsule containing the FPS genre’s most revolutionary games since 1993’s Doom. The best part? The Master Chief Collection runs just about flawlessly on the Steam Deck, meaning players can have their pick of legendary FPS campaigns on the go.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

• Release Date — April 5, 2022
• Publisher — Warner Bros. Games
• Developer — TT Games
• Genre — Action-adventure
• Steam User Score — 91% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 80% ($9.99)

At $10, there’s absolutely no reason to not pick up LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Similar to Halo: The Master Chief Collection, LEGO Star Wars is the best dollar-for-gameplay value you can find in the Steam Spring Sale, and it stands as the best LEGO game to have in your collection. If you’re going to just have one LEGO game, make it LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which contains some impressively large levels, a bogglingly large roster of playable heroes, and enough secrets and optional content to keep you busy for a ridiculous amount of time.

RoboCop: Rogue City

• Release Date — November 2, 2023
• Publisher — Nacon
• Developer — Teyon
• Genre — FPS, Action RPG
• Steam User Score — 88% (Very Positive)
• Discount — 80% ($9.99)

Set between the events of RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3, RoboCop: Rogue City is the RoboCop sequel gamers of a certain age wish we had gotten in theaters back in the day, and it does an impressive job of capturing the power fantasy of playing as an unstoppable force of robotic justice. Surprisingly, RoboCop: Rogue City is more than just a first-personshooter, as it also dabbles in elements that would feel right at home to any fan of Bethesda or Obsidian’s first-person RPGs. And with the standalone DLC/sequel having just been announced, there’s never been a better time to pick up the base game of RoboCop: Rogue City at its current deep discount of 80% off.

DOOM (2016)

• Release Date — May 13, 2016
• Publisher — Bethesda Softworks
• Developer — id Software
• Genre — FPS
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Discount — 90% ($1.99)

Simply put, DOOM (from 2016, not to be confused with the 1993 original) is one of the greatest first-person shooters of all time. Like its original namesake that it serves as a soft reboot of, DOOM is an incredibly influential first-person shooter that helped make the “movement shooter” subgenre and push-forward combat that so many FPS games embody mainstream. Every aspect of DOOM — combat, exploration, movement, traversal, music, visuals, and story — just screams “quality”, and its current price of $1.99 is absolutely unreal considering what players are getting in return.

Enter the Gungeon

• Release Date — April 5, 2016
• Publisher — Devolver Digital
• Developer — Dodge Roll
• Genre — Action Roguelike, Twin-Stick Shooter
• Steam User Score — 95% (Overwhelmingly Positive)
• Discount — 90% ($1.49)

Dodge Roll’s Enter the Gungeon is one of the greatest action roguelikes of all time, and its current price of $1.49 positions it as being less expensive than a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk while also being just as satiating from a gameplay perspective. It’s not hyperbole to assert that players can likely expect to spend upwards of a thousand hours unlocking everything and fully “completing” Enter the Gungeon, and those hours would be time well spent considering how incredibly fun it is at every turn, even when you’re dying over and over again to its insane bullet hell bosses.

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