Valve's first Steam Next Fest of 2026 is live with thousands of demos to try

The Steam Next Fest demo festival that Valve brings back every few months has just kicked off its first event of 2026, and if you"re a PC gamer, this is a great opportunity to check out what"s on the horizon. For those unfamiliar with these festivals, they are week-long digital events that include thousands of demos from upcoming games. The free gameplay slices are mostly from indie developers, but several major publishers are also offering their wares to try out ahead of launch.

To easily sort through the seemingly unending number of demos available, Steam users can utilize the February 2026 edition of the Next Fest hub page"s various sorting and filtering options. Up top, buttons offer quick access to separate and important sorting options like "By Genre," "By Theme," and "By Feature," with each one offering a more granular setting when clicked upon.

Adding to that, the powerful Steam tags system is available below on the page to make new discoveries quicker. As always, logging in will also enable Steam gamers to utilize Valve"s recommendation algorithms to find game demos they might like, specifically, depending on their past play and purchase histories. For those who may lack time to install and try all the available games, there is a handy Livestreams tab to check out games being played by developers.

"Next Fest kicks off with most sections sorted randomly," explains Valve about what interested players will see at first. "Steam uses what it learns in the first few days of the Fest to better recommend games to players from Wednesday onward."

This edition of the Steam Next Fest is slated to end on March 2 at 10 AM PT. The Valve event is now open, and it can be accessed by going to the dedicated hub page here.