Does Steam Work in China?

Is Steam blocked in China?

Partly. On Chinese networks, Steam Community is blocked, the Steam store opens only some of the time, and Steam’s help site opens normally.

GreatFire, which tests websites from mainland China, answers “No” to whether steamcommunity.com opens there. It says the Great Firewall poisons the site’s DNS and silently drops its packets, and that the site has been blocked in every conclusive test since December 16, 2017. Its latest test was on October 11, 2026.

For the store, GreatFire’s answer is “Sometimes”. It calls access to store.steampowered.com unreliable, in tests up to October 16, 2026. Steam’s support site, help.steampowered.com, got a “Yes” in its latest test, on August 17, 2026.

The Community block dates from December 2017. PC Gamer reported then that Steam’s forums, user profile pages and inventories had been blocked in China, while the store still worked. In December 2021, the South China Morning Post listed discussion boards, workshops, markets and broadcasts among the Steam social features China had blocked.

Does Steam work in China without a VPN?

Mostly, for the Steam app and your games. Reddit users living in China said in 2026 that the app signs in and downloads games without a VPN, but that the store often won’t load and Steam Community needs a VPN. Their reports are below.

Chinese gamers have a local workaround. NetEase’s UU accelerator, an app in Apple’s China App Store, advertises free acceleration for Steam on its Steam page. NetEase says UU gives quick access to Steam Community and fixes problems with signing in to Steam and downloading (our translation). Reddit users in China also recommend UU, or similar “boosters”, for online games on servers outside China.

Before downloading games, a Steam Deck owner in China suggested on Reddit in March 2026 changing Steam’s download region to Shanghai.

Steam in China: what Reddit users report

These are individual accounts, not tests.

• Beijing, March 2026. A Steam Deck owner who lives in Beijing wrote on r/SteamDeck that signing in, downloading and cloud saves work without a VPN, but Steam Community needs one. For online games, they said, people usually use accelerators such as UU.
• A long sabbatical, March 2026. Another user in China said the store usually wouldn’t load. Games they bought through a VPN on their phone downloaded straight to their Steam Deck without one, and updates worked too.
• April 2026. A user in China said Steam failed every time they tried to sign in on their laptop.
• September 2026. On r/travelchina, a user told someone in China who wanted to buy a game that Steam works there with a non-Chinese account, so there was no need for a VPN.
• October 2026. A user on r/chinalife said Steam downloads with the Astrill VPN on started fast, then slowed and failed. They worked after the user turned Astrill off and used UU. Without a VPN, the user said, downloads had been very slow. Another user said they disconnect their VPN to download game updates.
• October 2026. A Chinese user wrote on r/AskAChinese that players in China use the normal version of Steam, not the Chinese one.

Is Steam banned in China?

Partly. Steam Community has been blocked since 2017, and in December 2021 a website linked to a Chinese ministry listed Steam’s store domain as illegal. But the store still opens some of the time, and the Steam app still works.

The South China Morning Post said in December 2021 that the global Steam store had long operated in a legal grey area in China. Games sold in China are supposed to be officially licensed, it explained, and not all games on global Steam are.

On December 25, 2021, Chinese gamers began reporting that they couldn’t reach the store. The SCMP reported intermittent access in different parts of mainland China, with some users having no problems. Neither the government nor Valve made any announcement. The SCMP found search results on a website affiliated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology listing steampowered.com as an “illegal domain name”, and the ministry didn’t answer its calls. On December 29, KrASIA reported, citing the Chinese outlet Lan Jing, that China’s internet security regulator had said Steam’s global service was banned for “illicit activities”, which it didn’t specify. Fortune reported that users could still reach the store after persistent attempts, including through the Steam desktop app.

In October 2026, GreatFire’s answers were still “Sometimes” for the store and “No” for Steam Community.

Accounts set to China also see some content limits. In June 2026, Kotaku reported user posts saying that Steam’s LGBTQ+ tag page showed an error for accounts registered in China: the content violated “local laws and regulations”. Valve didn’t confirm it. A UK user who switched their store country to China after moving there said on r/chinalife in October 2026 that they couldn’t get EVE Online or The Finals. As a visitor, you keep your home store country (see below).

Steam China (蒸汽平台)

Steam China is a separate version of Steam for mainland China. Its Chinese name, 蒸汽平台, means “Steam platform”. Valve calls it “an onshore version of Steam” that it brought to China with Perfect World. The two companies announced it in June 2018, Engadget reported. They had worked together since 2012, when a Perfect World company licensed Dota 2, and later Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, in China. The announcement said there were no plans to change Steam’s existing worldwide operations and services.

Steam China’s user agreement took effect on February 9, 2021. It is between you and 完美世界征奇（上海）多媒体科技有限公司, a Perfect World company in Shanghai. The agreement says Perfect World has an exclusive license from Valve to run the platform independently in mainland China (our translation). The store’s footer says the copyright is Valve’s and Perfect World is licensed.

Games need Chinese government approval before they can go on Steam China, Valve says. The game’s Chinese publisher then gets an ISBN, which shows on its store page. Software that isn’t a game can be published directly.

Signing up needs real-name verification. The agreement says that, as national law requires, you must give true identity details, such as your real name and ID card number, and that users must be at least 14. We couldn’t confirm whether a foreign passport is accepted.

The catalog is much smaller than global Steam’s. In December 2021, the SCMP counted 103 titles on Steam China against nearly 110,000 on the global store. BGR said in March 2026 that many games on Steam China are heavily censored, user-made content is almost absent, and multiplayer games are restricted to Chinese servers. GreatFire found the Steam China store reachable in its latest test, on April 23, 2026.

Playing your own games in China

Set up Steam’s offline mode at home, so a blocked or slow connection can’t stop you playing. Valve’s steps:

1. Start Steam online, with “Remember me” checked on the login window.
2. Make sure your games are fully updated.
3. Launch each game you want to play, check that it needs no more updates, then close it.
4. In Steam > Settings > Security, make sure “Don’t save account credentials on this computer” isn’t selected.
5. From the Steam menu, choose Go Offline.

Valve warns that if Steam asks you to log in, there’s no way around it without going online. Games that need an active connection, or use an external launcher, won’t work in offline mode. Offline, Steam and your games don’t get updates.

Your account works as usual while you travel. Valve says the store shows your home country’s prices abroad, and you can buy as you would at home. A new user can’t set a store country while traveling, though, so make your first purchase before you go.

Does Steam Deck work in China?

Yes for games you’ve installed, which play offline. Valve says that, just like a PC, a Steam Deck needs to be online to download games and play online multiplayer, and that an installed game plays offline unless it needs an internet connection. Launch your games once before you leave. A Reddit user suggested switching the Deck to offline mode before the trip.

Valve doesn’t sell the Steam Deck in mainland China. Its Steam Deck FAQ says it sells the device directly in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU, and through Komodo, its authorized reseller, in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. BGR reported in March 2026 that Valve hasn’t licensed Steam Deck distribution to a local partner in China, which an official launch there would need.

On Chinese Wi-Fi, Steam Deck owners on r/SteamDeck said in March 2026 that signing in, downloads, updates and cloud saves worked without a VPN. The store often didn’t load, and Steam Community needed a VPN.

Travelers on Reddit said in December 2025 and October 2026 that they took Steam Decks through Chinese airports without trouble. Several warned about power banks. Since June 28, 2025, China has banned power banks without a clear 3C mark from domestic flights, China Daily reported. See our China power bank rules.

On a roaming eSIM or with a VPN

A roaming eSIM may get you into Steam Community on mobile data. Airalo, an eSIM seller, says its eSIMs with China coverage route your traffic through gateways outside mainland China. That gives “full access to blocked sites”, it says, “as long as you are using your eSIM data (and not the hotel Wi-Fi)”. Not every eSIM works this way. Salil Kanhere, a cybersecurity expert at UNSW, told the Bega District News in July 2026 that a local Chinese SIM or a China-specific eSIM typically remains subject to local filtering. We found no traveler reports about Steam on a roaming eSIM. Our guide eSIM or VPN for China? explains how the routing works.

A VPN can get you into the store and Steam Community, Reddit users in China say. They also say it can slow or break game downloads, and some turn it off while downloading. For online games, they tend to use accelerators such as UU instead.

Valve’s Subscriber Agreement, last updated September 10, 2026, has a clause on this. You agree not to use “IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence”, whether to get around geographical restrictions on game content, to buy at pricing not meant for your geography, “or for any other purpose”. If you do, Valve may terminate your access to your account. Valve doesn’t say how this applies to travelers.

Compare the VPNs we track on our VPN page, and read Is using a VPN legal in China? before you go.

Chinese alternatives

• Steam China (蒸汽平台). Perfect World’s licensed version of Steam, described above. It sells only games with Chinese government approval.
• WeGame. Tencent’s PC game platform describes itself as China’s largest PC game platform. A Reddit user living in China said in May 2026 that its identity verification was too complicated for a foreigner.

Related guides

• Roblox in China
• eSIM or VPN for China?
• VPNs that work in China
• VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China
• Apps to download before going to China