Thousands of Steam Users Call for New Feature to Be Added to the Platform

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Many Steam users are asking Valve to create a feature that randomly selects a game from their library. While some just want help deciding what to play, there are other reasons why people would like a “random game” button added to the platform.

A recent study from Newzoo (March 2025) found that PC gamers primarily play older games – titles released six or more years ago make up over two-thirds of their total gaming time. Popular, long-lasting games like DotA 2 and League of Legends are a major reason for this, but players also spend time revisiting games they’ve previously purchased. Often, though, they aren’t sure which game to play next.

Some Steam Users Want Valve To Add a ‘Random Game’ Feature

A Reddit user, YipuTheDerp, recently suggested Valve add a “random game” button to Steam. They explained many users struggle to choose a game from their large libraries, and a randomizer would help. Their idea was to allow users to create custom collections and then randomize games within those collections. The post quickly gained over 8,600 upvotes and lots of comments, hitting the top of the r/Steam subreddit on November 29th, showing significant community interest. Some users said they’d use the feature to tackle their growing list of unplayed games, while others thought it would be a fun way to discover new favorites, almost like collecting Steam Trading Cards.

Steam *Does* Have One Feature to Help Discover Games in User Libraries

Steam, Valve’s PC game platform, doesn’t have a feature that randomly picks games for you. However, since February 2020, it’s offered something similar with its “Play Next” feature. This feature uses smart technology to suggest games you haven’t tried yet, predicting what you’ll enjoy based on the games you’ve bought and played before. It started by suggesting just three games, but now offers eight as of late November 2025. Because it only picks from games you haven’t played, the suggestions aren’t truly random – they’re based on your existing tastes.

You can find the Play Next feature in your Steam library. Click the “Library” button in the top toolbar to access your game shelves, which initially only shows “All Games.” To see recommendations powered by Steam’s AI, click the “+ Add shelf” button (below “What’s New”) and choose “Play Next” from the menu. Some players who’ve been requesting a Steam game randomizer suggest it could be added as another game shelf, with an easy way to generate a new random selection.

Technically, it wouldn’t be too hard for Valve to add a feature that randomizes games on Steam. Generating true randomness is a well-established problem with solutions like the Fisher-Yates shuffle, and this could be implemented in just a few lines of C++, the language Steam is built on. However, there’s no sign that Valve is planning to do this right now.

Some Third-Party Services Can Pick Random Games from Any (Public) Steam Library

There are already a few free tools that do something similar. SteamDB is the most popular, with its Steam Calculator picking a random game from your collection and letting you do it again and again. However, Valve could make this even better by building a randomizer directly into Steam. Currently, SteamDB needs access to your public profile to work, while a built-in feature would work with any account.

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2025-11-30 05:36