Do you own the games you buy on Steam?
Short answer: no. What the Steam Subscriber Agreement actually says, what that means in practice, and what California now requires Valve to tell you.
Published July 5, 2026
When you click "Add to Cart" on Steam and pay $60, it feels like buying a game. Legally, it isn't. You're buying a subscription to a license — Valve's own contract says so.
What the Steam Subscriber Agreement actually says
The Steam Subscriber Agreement — the contract you accepted when you made your account — describes everything in your library as "Subscriptions." The agreement states that Steam content is licensed, not sold, and that the license grants you no ownership interest in the games themselves.
In late 2024, Steam's checkout began displaying this directly: a notice that "a purchase of a digital product grants a license for the product on Steam." That banner wasn't a policy change. It was a disclosure of the policy that had been in the agreement all along — prompted by a new California law (more on that below).
What "license, not ownership" means in practice
Ownership has properties the law protects: you can resell a used book, lend it, leave it in your will. A license has whatever properties the contract gives it — and platform licenses are drafted to be:
- Non-transferable. You cannot sell, give away, or bequeath your Steam library. Accounts are single-owner by contract.
- Revocable. Your access can end if your account is terminated, and games can lose functionality or disappear when servers close or licensing deals lapse.
- Conditional on the platform existing. Your library is available for as long as the storefront operates and chooses to keep serving it.
This isn't hypothetical. Our incident database documents cases across the industry: games rendered permanently unplayable by server shutdowns, purchased video deleted over licensing disputes, whole storefronts closing. The specific companies and remedies vary; the underlying legal structure — a revocable license dressed in the language of buying — is the same one your Steam library sits on.
To be clear about the other side of the ledger: Steam has operated continuously since 2003, most Steam games run offline in Steam's offline mode once installed, and Valve has not mass-revoked purchased libraries. The risk is structural, not an accusation of intent.
What changed with California AB 2426
California's AB 2426, operative January 1, 2025, made it false advertising to sell digital goods with words like "buy" or "purchase" unless the seller either provides a copy that works offline without their involvement, or clearly tells you that you're getting a revocable license.
That's why disclosure banners appeared at digital checkouts. What the law does not do: it doesn't stop revocation, doesn't require refunds when access is pulled, and doesn't require offline copies. It makes the license visible; it doesn't turn the license into ownership. See our AB 2426 explainer for the full picture, and the state tracker for whether your state has anything comparable.
What you can actually do
- Know which of your games run offline. Games without DRM or with a one-time activation keep working; always-online games stop when servers do.
- Prefer DRM-free copies where they exist for media you care about keeping long-term.
- Back up installers for DRM-free purchases; a file on your drive is the only copy no license terminates.
- Support disclosure and restitution laws in your state — the action center has templates.