Steam Families Explained: How Steam Family Sharing Works in 2026

Steam Families lets a household share one pool of games instead of buying the same game several times. It replaced the old Family Library Sharing and Family View, and its rules are stricter than most people expect, especially the one-year cooldown. Here is how it works.

The short version

• A family can have up to 6 members (you plus 5 others).
• Everyone can play eligible games owned by anyone in the family.
• Each person keeps their own saves, achievements and wallet.
• One copy = one player at a time. If two people want to play the same game at once, the family needs two copies.
• Members are meant to be one household, in the same country.
• If someone leaves, their slot is locked for a year.

How to set it up

1. In Steam, go to Settings → Family (or store.steampowered.com/account/familymanagement).
2. Choose Create a Family. You become an adult member and the organiser.
3. Invite members from your friends list. Each person accepts and is set as an adult or a child.
4. Once they are in, everyone's shareable games appear in the Library under a family filter.

Adults can manage the family, invite and remove people, and approve child requests. Children get parental controls.

Playing a shared game

Open the Library, find the game (shared games show the owner's name), and play it like your own. Your progress is saved to your account.

If the owner starts playing the same game while you are in it, they get priority. You will be given a few minutes to save and quit. The same applies between any two members using one copy.

Games you cannot share

Not everything in a library is shareable:

• Games whose publisher opted out. Some games, often ones with third-party accounts or launchers, are excluded.
• Free-to-play games, since there is nothing to share.
• Some DLC. DLC usually comes with the shared base game, but publishers can exclude it, so do not assume every expansion comes along.
• Subscriptions, in-game currency and items. These stay with the account that bought them.

Check the store page: shareable games show "Steam Family Sharing" under their features.

The one-year rules

This is the part that catches people out:

• Leaving or being removed from a family means you cannot join or create another family for one year.
• The empty slot is also locked for one year. The family cannot fill it with someone new until the cooldown ends.
• If someone left by accident, they can usually rejoin their previous family without waiting, as long as it still has a free slot.

So do not add a friend "just to try it". Every slot you use is a decision for the next year.

Wallet money is not shared

Every member keeps their own Steam Wallet. A gift card redeemed on a parent's account cannot be spent by a child, and vice versa.

For families that want one person to fund a child's purchases, Steam offers purchase requests: a child adds a game to their cart, requests it, and an adult in the family approves and pays with their payment method or wallet. That is the cleanest way to let a child spend family money without sharing passwords.

If you redeem a Steam gift card, redeem it on the account that will actually do the buying.

Parental controls

Child accounts in a Steam Family can have:

• Library limits: only games an adult approves are visible.
• Playtime limits and schedules, set per day.
• Store, community and chat restrictions.
• Purchase requests instead of direct buying.

Adults can also see playtime reports. For parents wondering about rewards sites as well, our guide to age rules on reward sites explains why teens should not sign up on an account in a parent's name.

Steam Families vs the old system

The new system is better for real families and worse for friends who used to share casually. That is deliberate: the cooldown and the "household" rule are there to stop library-renting.

Can sharing get you banned?

If a member cheats in a game and gets a VAC ban, Steam can restrict family sharing for that game, and in some cases for the owner. Only share with people you trust not to cheat on your copy.

FAQ

Can I share with a friend in another country?
Steam Families is meant for a household. Members are expected to share a country, and Steam can restrict sharing that clearly isn't one household.

Does a shared game count for my achievements?
Yes. Achievements and playtime go to whoever is playing, on their own account.

Can I share my Steam Deck library?
Yes. Steam Deck uses the same Steam Families system as desktop Steam.

Can we pool money to buy one game?
Not on Steam. One person buys it, and everyone in the family can play it, one at a time.