Steam adds wishlist categories and new gifting features

Valve has introduced a major update to its Steam platform, significantly overhauling the wishlist and gifting systems to provide users with more organization and flexibility. Announced on July 22, 2026, the update adds customizable categories for wishlists and expands gifting options to include guest checkout, email delivery, and cross-region purchases.

The most prominent change allows users to create and manage custom categories within their Steam wishlists. Players can now sort their saved games into personalized groups, such as "buy when on sale," "wait for reviews," or genre-based collections. These categories can be used to filter the entire wishlist view and to customize notifications, so users only receive alerts for sales, demos, or full releases on games within specified groups. The update also improves the wishlist's search function with autocomplete and adds a visual highlight to indicate when a demo is available for a wishlisted title. Furthermore, users can now generate a shareable link to their entire wishlist or to a specific category, a feature designed to simplify gift-giving occasions like birthdays.

Complementing the wishlist enhancements are substantial...