How do I install Steam Beta?
Please follow the instructions below to participate in the Steam client beta:
- With Steam running, click on “Steam” in the upper left, then choose the “Settings” menu. (Preferences on Mac)
- On the “Account” tab under “Beta Participation” click the “Change…” button.
- Select the “Steam Beta Update” from the drop down list and click “OK”.
- You will be prompted to restart Steam, please select the “Restart Steam” button.
If you are using Big Picture Mode:
- Select ‘Settings’ then ‘System’
- Check the ‘Participate in client beta’ option
- Follow the prompt to restart Steam
If you are using a Steam Deck:
- Press the “Steam” button
- Select “Settings” then “System”
- Navigate to the “Beta Participation” section
- Expand the System Update Channel pull-down and select “Beta”
- Follow the prompt to restart your device
Instantly access to your favorite games on Steam, with thousands of games, exclusive deals, automatic game updates and other great perks. With Steam you can also join the Steam Community of PC gamers, join game groups, form clans, chat in-game and more.
Why is Steam so popular?
Steam was originally created by Half-Life developer Valve as a platform to update their games and distribute them digitally back in 2003. The service had a slow start, at the time facing competition from brick and mortar stores and physical game copies, but it didn’t take long until it became the top digital distribution platform for PC gamers. Over the years Valve has successfully grown a platform that hosts games from most other publishers, studios, and game creators in general.
Is there a monthly fee for Steam?
Absolutely not. Steam is free and the platform makes money through the sale of games and other digital content.
What’s New
The Steam Client Beta has been updated with the following changes:
General
- Updated embedded Chromium build in Steam to 126.0.6478.183
Game Recording
- Added support for recording with the H.265 (HEVC) video codec when supported by the machine’s GPU. This is enabled by default on Windows and should provide improved recording video quality over H.264 at the same file size. Coming soon to Mac and Linux.
- Added support for recording up to 4k video resolution when using H.265 (HEVC).
- Added a new “auto” quality setting that will set the recording bit rate based on the game’s video resolution. This will raise the bit rate when recording games running in 4k, to keep the recorded video sharp, and lower the resolution when running a game at 1080p to save disk space. This setting is on by default for all users.
- Added support for recording ultrawide monitors up to 32:9 aspect ratio.
- Added a setting to limit the width & height of recorded video.
- Exporting a recording (to file, clipboard or chat) will now use the machine’s GPU to perform encoding and decoding when available.
- Generating screenshots from recordings will now use the machine’s GPU when available.
- Fixed multiple issues where exporting a recording could fail.
- Added export settings dialog to allow custom file size or other settings when exporting a clip.
- Added video previews to the Background Recording items in the media manager when hovering them with a mouse or focusing them in BPM.
- Added video previews to the Background Recording items in the app details page’s screenshot section when hovering them with a mouse or focusing them in BPM.
- In per-game settings, add the ability to record a specified game indefinitely with no specified time limit.
- Integrated the list of games where recording is disabled into the per-game settings.
Steam Input
- Fixed crash occurring when querying community controller configurations in the configurator.
Remote Play
- Added support for AV1 video streaming on high end systems.
Steam Overlay
- Fixed crash in some games using D3D9.
Windows
- This version of the Steam client will no longer run on Windows 7 or Windows 8. Users on these OS versions will automatically be opted out of the beta. See here for additional details.
- Improved detection of other computers for streaming and peer downloading when using a secondary wireless interface.
macOS
- This version of the Steam client will no longer run on macOS 10.13 or 10.14. Users on these OS versions will automatically be opted out of the beta. See here for additional details.
Linux
- Fixed some miscellaneous common crashes.
- Fixed some parts of the in-game overlay ignoring clicks when the Game Recording timeline is visible.
- Fixed slow startup on systems where the reverse hostname lookup for the loopback interface is not localhost.
- Detecting and passing commands to an already running Steam client is significantly faster.
- Added a -disable-screensaver-inhibit command line option to prevent Steam from inhibiting the screen saver when activity is detected.