Steam Autumn Sale: What to Buy Now and What to Leave for Winter
The Autumn Sale ends October 8. Which games are truly at their lowest MENA price, and which are worth leaving for the December 17 Winter Sale? A one-minute SteamDB check.
Steam's Autumn Sale kicked off on October 1 and runs until Thursday, October 8 at 8:00 PM in Turkey. The storefront is once again covered in red discount labels: 70%, 80%, 90%.
But a big discount does not necessarily mean a good deal.
If the same game was already 80% off last summer, seeing another 80% discount today is not a special opportunity. It is simply the same price coming back.
This is not another list of “50 games on sale.” There is a more useful question to answer instead: Should you buy the game sitting in your cart now, or wait for the Steam Winter Sale starting on December 17?
The Bad News First: You Probably Don't Need to Rush
Under Steam's normal rules, a game generally has to wait 30 days after one discount ends before another discount can begin.
However, Steam's four major seasonal sales are exempt from that restriction. That means a game discounted during the Autumn Sale can appear again during the Winter Sale — potentially at an even lower price.
In other words, the pressure of “buy it now or miss out” is not real for most games.
The Steam Winter Sale begins on December 17, 2026 and runs until January 4, 2027. That is only about two and a half months away.
The Calculation Is a Little More Complicated in Turkey
In November 2023, Valve moved Turkey away from Turkish lira pricing and into its dollar-based MENA pricing region.
Since then, Steam prices in Turkey have been displayed in U.S. dollars. If you pay with a Turkish lira card, the amount that ultimately leaves your account depends on your bank's exchange rate at the time of the transaction.
That adds another variable to the decision.
A game might become $1 cheaper during the Winter Sale, but if the exchange rate moves against the lira over those two and a half months, the final amount you pay in TRY could stay roughly the same — or even increase.
The basic rule is:
- Waiting on very cheap games often makes little sense. If a $3 game drops to $2 in winter, the saving is relatively small and could easily be offset by exchange-rate movement.
- Waiting on newer and more expensive games can make more sense. An additional 10–20% discount on a $40–60 game represents a much larger saving. What the exchange rate will look like by then, of course, is another uncertainty entirely.
How Do You Know Whether a Discount Is Actually Good?
Steam's own store page is not enough, because it only shows you today's discount.
For price history, you need SteamDB. The process takes about a minute:
- Go to steamdb.info and search for the game.
- On the game's page, find “MENA - U.S. Dollar” in the currency list. Turkey belongs to this region. Looking at the U.S. price instead can give you the wrong comparison.
- Check the “Lowest Recorded Price” entry. If today's price matches it, the game is currently at its recorded all-time low. That does not mean this is the first time it has reached that price — only that SteamDB has never recorded it lower.
- Then look at the price history graph near the bottom of the page. If the game has repeatedly dropped to the same level during recent sales, there is little reason to panic. The price history tells you that this is not a one-time opportunity.
That fourth step is the important one.
A “75% off” label means very little by itself. Whether that same 75% discount has appeared four times before tells you much more.
The Strongest Games to Buy Now
The following games are currently at their lowest recorded MENA prices and are already cheap enough that the potential benefit of waiting is minimal.
| Game | MENA Price | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| The Outlast Trials | $1.89 | 90% |
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | $2.99 | 90% |
| Hogwarts Legacy | $5.99 | 90% |
| Resident Evil 4 | $7.49 | 75% |
| Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade | $7.99 | 75% |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | $13.49 | 70% |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | $14.99 | 75% |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance II | $17.99 | 60% |
Hogwarts Legacy at $5.99 is probably the clearest example of why waiting on very cheap games often makes little sense. Even if it somehow dropped to $4 during the Winter Sale, you would only save another $2 — and exchange-rate movement could easily eat into part of that advantage.
Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are the real headline deals here. Both are currently matching their lowest recorded MENA prices.
Nobody can guarantee that these prices will not return during the Winter Sale. But if either game has already been sitting on your wishlist, buying it at the current recorded low is a perfectly reasonable decision instead of waiting months in the hope of saving a few more dollars.
At Their Lowest Price — But You Can Still Wait
These games are also at their recorded lows, but the decision is less obvious.
They still cost around $25 or more, and their current discount percentages are relatively modest. A deeper discount during the Winter Sale would not be surprising, although there is no guarantee that one will happen.
| Game | MENA Price | Discount |
|---|---|---|
| Baldur's Gate 3 | $24.49 | 30% |
| Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | $27.99 | 20% |
| God of War Ragnarök | $33.49 | 33% |
The decision here is straightforward: if you plan to start playing immediately, buy it.
If the game is just going to sit in your backlog anyway, waiting until December is a reasonable gamble.
An “all-time low” label does not automatically mean “unmissable deal,” especially when the discount itself is still relatively shallow.
Don't Be Fooled by the Discount Percentage
The best example in this sale is Persona 5 Royal.
Steam currently shows a large 70% off label and a MENA price of $17.99, which sounds like a very good deal.
But according to SteamDB, the same game has previously dropped to $11.99 at 80% off in the MENA region.
That means today's supposedly massive discount still leaves the game 50% more expensive than its lowest recorded price.
This is exactly why the percentage alone does not tell you whether a sale price is actually good.
If a game has repeatedly reached a lower price before, that is a strong sign that today's discount is not a one-time opportunity. When you see a big “70% off” label, checking the SteamDB chart should be your first move.
If the line has already gone lower in the past, there is probably no reason to rush.
Walking away from this sale without buying anything is not a loss.
The real loss is buying a game today simply because you are afraid the discount will disappear, only to find the same price — or a better one — a few months later.
If one of the games above has been sitting on your wishlist for years and is now at its recorded low, there is little reason to keep waiting. You have until October 8 at 8:00 PM in Turkey.
For everything else, December is not that far away.
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