56

I have game details set to private in my profile, but when others look at a game I own in the Steam store, they can still see if I own the game or have added it to my wishlist. Is there a way to turn this off?

Joachim
  • 20,337
  • 15
  • 73
  • 103
BrapPleaseHelp
  • 569
  • 1
  • 4
  • 5
  • Steam has since updated their app to allow making games private when purchasing or playing. I have updated the selected answer reflecting that. – FelixDracul Mar 05 '24 at 04:57

3 Answers3

70

Update [5th of March, 2024]: You can now hide the game you want when you are purchasing or playing a game. You can read the official blog post to know more info.

When purchasing a game, the new cart will have a dropdown with the option to make it a private purchase. This will make it so that your purchase will not appear on everyone's timeline. Private cart

When playing a game, you can go to your library, right click on a game and under the manage options, there will be an option to mark is as a private game. This will make it so that the game you mark as private will not appear on any other people on their timelines and other pages. Private game

Edit [27th Nov, 2023]: Setting your profile to private now hides others from seeing if you own a game from that game's store page. I checked again recently using the same method I initially used and saw that the game's ownership is hidden from your friends if you set your profile to private. This seems to have been quietly updated some time ago without any announcements. Also worth noting that Steam seems to be experimenting with a method on how to hide your game from others by enabling a setting from your library. As of now, this method isn't available to the public yet.

Initial Answer: I tested this now using two accounts. And sadly, as of this writing, you can't seem to hide your owned/wishlisted games from your Steam friends on the games' specific store pages. This seems like an oversight on Valve's part since you can already hide owned/wishlisted games from your profile page using the privacy settings. That completely blocks them off from appearing on your profile. However, changing privacy setting doesn't seem to affect showing your ownership/wishlist status on the game's page.

This is trying to access a friend's wishlist when their profile is set to private. As you can see, the games are hidden as they should be.
enter image description here

And below is what you see when you visit a page of a game that your friend owns. The friend's profile privacy is set to "friends only" and the "keep my total playtime private" option is turned off. As you can see, it shows your friend's name and the total time they played the game.
enter image description here

This is what you see when you visit the same page when the friend's profile privacy is set to "friends only", but with the "keep my total playtime private" option turned on. It shows the friend who owns the game, but the game time is not shown. As it should be.
enter image description here

Finally, this is the same page, but with the friend's profile privacy set to "private". It supposedly shouldn't display anything, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
enter image description here

I think it's better if you contact Steam support regarding this and tell them. This seems like an oversight on Valve's part.

Edit [15th Jan, 2021]: I contacted Steam support on this issue. Seems like the issue would be fixed if more users made Valve aware of it using Official Steam Feedback, Official Steam Help, and Steam Subreddit.
enter image description here

FelixDracul
  • 1,387
  • 9
  • 15
  • 17
    An issue that extends from this: Your recommended games never forget what you've played, even if you've wiped the undesirable games in every way that you could think of. – J. Mini Jan 12 '21 at 21:40
  • 1
    Does that include a GDPR request to be forgotten, @J.Mini? – Adam Barnes Jan 15 '21 at 09:04
  • @AdamBarnes Can't say that I've ever tried that. Is there a simple way to do it? – J. Mini Jan 15 '21 at 19:12
  • Almost definitely not. I also haven't tried. – Adam Barnes Jan 17 '21 at 01:51
  • 4
    Steam: We're sorry, but you cannot hide Hentai Simulator from your friends at this time. – Coreus Feb 03 '21 at 12:39
  • @Coreus I'd bet on everything I own that that is the story behind this question – Penguin Feb 08 '21 at 06:48
  • This has now been updated. Setting your account to private hides your game ownership from that game's store page from your friends. I have edited the answer to reflect that. – FelixDracul Nov 28 '23 at 06:37
  • 1
    Looks like the beta client added a way instead of setting your account to private: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/3901870709962551195 I expect it will make its way to the stable release soon – Timmy Jim Dec 21 '23 at 01:47
  • 1
    Yeah, I will definitely update the answer once this feature comes to the stable build. – FelixDracul Jan 05 '24 at 09:49
  • 1
    So, is there anything about a game's ownership that's still imposssible to hide in a game-specific manner? – Malady Mar 05 '24 at 14:23
  • There is now an official way of hiding a game by right-clicking it and checking its property, even without beta program. You can even go as far as hiding its activities from your contact (achievements and screenshots I suppose) – Clockwork Mar 11 '24 at 06:19
16

While it's a decidedly sub-optimal (and somewhat-obvious) solution, there is one work-around to this if the game you don't want to be displayed is one that you haven't purchased yet:

Set up a second Steam account and use that account to purchase the game.

Then just don't add your friends to said second account.

reirab
  • 263
  • 1
  • 8
6

Reposting my (now deleted) comment as an answer.

Not much of a solution, but you can follow the following answer to "permanently" remove a game from your library. That will effectively behave as if you never had the game, and the store page won't say that you have the game in your library anymore, which gives you the impression that you would have to buy it again if you want to have it in your library again (which isn't the case; see below the quote).

Quote from the answer:

Steps

  1. Log into Steam Support
  2. Select Games, Software, etc.,
  3. Select the game from the search function that shows up
  4. Select the option: I want to permanently remove this game from my account.
  5. Select the option: Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently.
  6. Repeat as many times as you have games you'd like to get rid of.

Although Steam says it's "permanent", it isn't. You can cancel the removal (e.g. if you return on the support page for that game, you are prompted whether or not you want to put the game back in your library). Which means you can use the permanent removal feature as a way to toggle the game on or off whenever you want.

The only problem to this solution in your case is, you would have to cancel the removal everytime you want to play the game that was removed. Otherwise, it is an effective way of hiding away a game you own when you are not playing it (or if you don't ever intend to play it).

Clockwork
  • 521
  • 5
  • 16