Steam adds wishlist categories and expanded gifting

Valve rolled out an update to the Steam storefront on July 23, 2026. The update adds customizable wishlist categories, upgraded search and wishlist microtrailers, shareable category links, guest checkout, email gifting and cross-region gifting.

Wishlist categories are customizable tags that users can name and apply to games with a single click. Categories appear as tabs at the top of the wishlist for quick filtering. The most-used tags appear in the Add to Wishlist dropdown on store pages. Users can limit notifications to specific categories.

Search on the wishlist now includes autocomplete. Games with available demos are marked and users can opt in to receive alerts when a demo appears. Small preview videos, described as microtrailers, play when hovering over a game’s image on the wishlist. Navigation has been adjusted so users return more easily to the item they were viewing when moving between pages.

“With so many amazing games on Steam, players are wishlisting more and more titles,” Valve wrote. “Existing options like ranking and filtering are great, but players have asked for even more ways to manage their Steam wishlists.”

Users can share a specific wishlist category via a custom URL. The link lets others view only that category even if the rest of the wishlist is private. The owner can revoke the link at any time.

Guest checkout, previously limited to digital gift cards and hardware, now allows purchases of any Steam game as a gift without a Steam account. When someone follows a shared category link, they can select “Purchase as a gift” and have purchase fields auto-filled.

Email gifting lets buyers send a game directly to an email address when the recipient’s Steam account is unknown. Email gifts must be accepted within 30 days or are refunded automatically, cannot be scheduled for future delivery, and must be sold in the buyer’s region.

Cross-region gifting is enabled. Steam calculates the price for the recipient’s location, which may result in a different cost for the sender. Senders must be friends with recipients on Steam to use cross-region gifting. Previously cross-region purchases were blocked.

The changes apply to the Steam storefront and began rolling out on July 23, 2026.