Rampant fraud forces Valve to cut Steam gift card sales

Valve has officially confirmed that it will not be shipping out any more physical Steam gift cards to retailers after this year is up.

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2026 is the last year for users to buy physical Steam gift cards in stores. A new Steam Support page, Valve is besieged by scammers and fraudsters that keep finding new ways to pull a fast one on the company.

"As we have continued to put more and more restrictions in place, scammers have adapted. They continue to have an impact on Steam customers and other unsuspecting individuals. So we've made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program at retail stores,"Valve said in the update.

The operator of gaming's largest PC marketplace reiterates that no new gift cards will be issued to big-box retailers, which could actually be a blow to their annual earnings, as consumers are wont to stock up on physical Steam gift cards en masse during special sales, including Black Friday sales.

"As Steam Gift Cards run out of stock at retail locations, we will not be restocking them. We expect all retailers to be out of stock by the end of 2026."

So there we have it, another end of an era (too many of these in modern gaming). Valve says that it will keep selling digital Steam gift cards, and it's worth mentioning that those are purchasable directly from Valve.

This move also comes as Valve is nearing the launch of its Steam Machine and Steam Frame devices, which are expected to be expensive. The launch of these products seems unrelated to the cessation of gift cards, though.