How To Hide Or Remove A Game From Your Steam Library

Steam is the best app available for building your video game collection. As it is also the world’s most popular PC gaming platform, most recent titles are available for purchase on the Steam Store.

Unlike many other platforms, Steam provides extra incentives to grow your library with the addition of badges and levels. Users can feel rewarded for each new game that they add to their virtual collection.

However, sometimes we want to permanently remove a game from our library because we no longer like it or have no intention of playing it in the future.

Is this possible on Steam? Find out in the guide below.

Reasons To Remove A Game From Your Steam Library

You might be wondering why a Steam user would ever consider removing a game from their library if there are only benefits to having a larger collection on the platform.

However, not every game in your collection provides these incentives.

Free games on Steam don’t contribute to your owned games total, meaning you don’t earn XP or gain badge progress by keeping them in your library. After completing one of those free games, you might want to remove it from your library to make it less cluttered and easier to navigate.

The primary motive for eliminating games is to organize the library, and the other purpose is to ensure the safety of all users, regardless of age. This is particularly crucial if you have younger siblings using your account or if you’re a parent sharing an account with your kids.

In these circumstances, is it more advantageous to conceal or erase a game from your Steam library? We will examine that inquiry in the subsequent section.

Difference Between Hiding And Removing A Game From Steam

Hiding games on Steam is highly distinct from removing them from your account. If you hide a game, you will always be able to access it by opening your list of hidden games. However, if you remove it completely, it is permanently gone from your account.

Let’s start with the less serious option, which is hiding a game on Steam.

Hiding A Game On Steam

Hiding games helps keep your collection tidy and stops young people from playing an inappropriate game, while still keeping the game in your library.

To hide a game on Steam, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Steam client on your PC and sign in to your account.
2. Click on Library, which is located in the top bar menu.
   
3. On the left side, you will see a list of games you own. Right-click the game you want to hide and select Manage, then Hide this game.
   

The game is now hidden from your library, but you can still access it whenever you want by opening the list of hidden games. You can also change it back to being visible in your library again.

To do that, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Steam client. Click View in the top-left corner and select Hidden Games.
   
2. Find the game you want to make visible in your main library again, then right-click it and select Manage, then Remove from Hidden.

The game will now be visible in your main library again. You can repeat this process for any other games you want to unhide.

Now for the more severe measure of permanently removing a game from your Steam library.

Removing A Game On Steam

If you are very disappointed in a game, or you no longer want to have it in your collection for other reasons, you can permanently remove it from your account.

Be careful when doing this, as the process is irreversible.

The process of removing a free game on Steam is easier than removing a game you have purchased. We will cover both methods below.

To remove a free game from your Steam library, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Steam client on your PC and sign in to your account.
2. Click on Library in the top bar menu to open your list of games.
3. Right-click the free game you wish to remove, select Manage and then Remove from account.
   
4. Steam will ask you to confirm your decision before making the change.
   

After clicking Remove, the game will be removed from your library. As it’s a free game, you will be able to re-add it as long as it’s still available in the Steam Store.

If you want to remove a game that you purchased, the process is slightly more difficult. This is so you don’t accidentally remove a game you paid for. However, it is still possible to remove a purchased game permanently.

Follow the steps below to do so:

1. Open the Steam client on your PC and click on Help in the top bar menu, then Steam Support.
   
2. Find the game you want to remove using the search bar at the bottom of the panel. If you have recently played the game, it will be listed in the “Recent” section at the top of the panel.
   
3. After finding the game, click on it to open a menu of options. For this example, we will use Cyberpunk 2077.
   
4. Choose the last option on the list, which is “I want to permanently remove this game from my account.”
5. There will be a final confirmation required before the game is permanently removed from your library.
   
6. If you click “Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently,” you will delete the title from your collection.

As this isn’t a free game, to re-add it to your library, you will need to purchase it again from the Steam Store. All downloadable and bonus content will also be removed alongside the main game, so keep this in mind before you confirm your decision.

Conclusion

You now know how to hide titles from your Steam library, as well as how to permanently remove both free and paid games from your collection. You can use this knowledge to keep your library organized and free of games you don’t intend to play in the future.

Think carefully about your decision before removing games, as you might change your mind later.