Steam’s Hide Games feature allows users to keep their gaming activity private, temporarily or permanently. Whether it’s due to embarrassment, avoiding prying eyes, or simply wanting to maintain privacy, the platform ensures your gaming information and purchases remain secure. With this feature, you can hide one or more titles from being visible to others, so only you know what you’re playing or buying.
Here’s how to address the most common questions about hiding games on Steam:
1. How to Hide Your Games Through the Steam App
By managing your game library settings, you can use the Steam app to hide your games. Follow these steps:
- Open your Steam Library.
- Right-click the game you want to hide.
- Select Manage > Hide this game.
The game will now move to a hidden section, visible only when you choose to reveal it.
2. How to Hide Your Games Through the Web Browser
If you’re using Steam in a web browser, the process is similar:
- Log in to your Steam account.
- Navigate to your game library.
- Click on the game you want to hide and access its settings.
- Select the option to hide the game.
3. How to Hide Your Games in the Shopping Cart
While there’s no direct “hide” button for your shopping cart, your purchase history and the details of what you’ve bought can be set to private:
- Go to your account privacy settings.
- Adjust the Game Details section to Private, which prevents others from seeing your library or purchases.
How do hidden games work in multiplayer?
When you are playing on the online title multiplayer, the game remains hidden in your Steam account. However, within the servers of the experience, your Steamid continues to appear like the others – that is, if none of them are playing the same game, you will not be “discovered.”
Additionally, if you are playing something you have scored as hidden and invite a friend to matches, he, in particular, can see his status within the game. This disappears when the user leaves the game and disconnects from the Steam account.
The main differences between hidden and “hidden” games
Users can “hide” games in their library, which serves a different purpose than hiding them from friends. Hiding games in your library is simply a way to organize and manage your collection, making it easier to find your favorites quickly.
On the other hand, marking games as private works the opposite way. These titles remain visible in your library but won’t be visible to your friends or other players.
Consequences when hiding games
When you hide a game on Steam, it’s not just removed from your library view for friends—it comes with additional features that might influence your decision. By marking a game as private, here’s what happens:
- The game will no longer appear on your community profile or the recently played games section.
- Your status in the Friends list or chats won’t display as “in-game” when playing the private title.
- Your game activity (like achievements or playtime) won’t appear in your friends’ activity feeds.
- When a friend searches for the game on Steam, your profile won’t appear under the “Friends who own this game” section.
- If a friend tries to gift you the game, it won’t show that you already own it.
- Your Steam profile won’t reflect achievements from the game, including rare ones.
- You won’t receive Steam collectible cards for games marked as private.
This feature gives users more control over their privacy and how their gaming activity is shared on the platform.
