Steam Next Fest
Also called: Next Fest, Steam Game Festival
Steam Next Fest is a weeklong Steam event, held three times a year, where unreleased games offer public demos to players, press and streamers.
Steam Next Fest is a weeklong Valve event that runs three times a year, in February, June and October. Only unreleased games can take part, each game can join only one Next Fest, and the store page must be public with a playable demo available by the start of the event (Steamworks documentation, partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/upcoming_events/nextfest, accessed 27 Oct 2026).
The same page lists the review deadlines. A demo build goes to review 5 weeks before the Fest if it releases before the Press Preview, or 3 weeks before if it releases before the Fest begins. Press Preview starts 11 days before the event. For many players the demo is the first contact with the game, and a crash in the first minutes ends that contact.
QA for a Next Fest demo focuses on the first 30 minutes of play, a clean install on several machines, controller and Steam Deck input, and a smoke test on the exact build submitted for review. The Next Fest checklist on this site lists 52 points to run before the demo goes public.
Updated · Written by JJ, founder of Jumbo Jelly.
Where to read more
Related terms
- Smoke test
A smoke test is a short check that a new build starts, loads and runs its main loop, done before deeper testing so nobody wastes hours on a broken build.
- Steam Deck Verified
Deck Verified is Valve's top Steam Deck compatibility rating, given when a game passes all checks and needs no configuration from the player.
- Build ID
A Steam build ID is the global number Steam assigns to each uploaded build of a game, used to tell builds apart and to set one live on a branch.
- Steam review process
The Steam review process is Valve's check of a game's store page and build before launch, each typically taking 3 to 5 business days.