It's That Time Again: Steam Next Fest is Here to Drown You in a Sea of Free Demos

Brace yourselves. The latest Steam Next Fest has officially kicked off, unleashing thousands of free demos upon our unprepared hard drives.

It’s that magical time of the quarter again when Valve decides to absolutely obliterate our free time. The October 2025 edition of Steam Next Fest is live right now, and it's running for a full week of glorious, demo-fueled chaos.

You've got until October 20th at 7:00 PM CEST (10:00 AM Pacific) to dive in and sample a seemingly endless buffet of upcoming games. From big-name indie titles to obscure gems you've never heard of, there are literally thousands of free demos available to download and play.

BUT WHAT IS IT?

For the uninitiated, Steam Next Fest is Valve’s seasonal celebration of upcoming games. It’s your best chance to get a hands-on feel for titles before they launch, discover your next obsession, and, most importantly, wishlist the games you love to follow their development. It's a direct line to the future of PC gaming, and it's completely free.

So, what are you waiting for? Stop reading this and get over to the festival page. Your next favorite game is probably sitting there right now, just waiting to be discovered.

We'll be diving headfirst into the madness ourselves and will be putting together a list of our favorite, must-play demos from the event soon. Keep an eye out for that. For now, happy demo hunting. May your backlog have mercy on your soul.