Steam's mature content settings, explained

It is tempting to tick as little as possible so the game reaches every player. A horror game with a few gory scenes, a visual novel with one suggestive image, a shooter with blood: each developer wonders whether disclosing will hide the game from people who would have bought it.

The answer in Valve's rules is blunt. Products on Steam must follow the content rules whether or not the content is disclosed, Valve compares the survey answers with the build and the store page in review, and a game whose content does not match its answers can be pulled. Accurate answers cost a little visibility with players who chose to filter that content out, players who would likely have refunded. Inaccurate ones can cost the page.

• Disclose all adult content you uploaded in your builds, even if it is not accessible or presented in the product. Cut content left in the files counts.
• Make honest and accurate disclosures, and describe the content plainly in the free-text fields.
• The content rules apply regardless. Disclosing does not make prohibited content allowed.
• Some answers lock after approval. Changing them later means contacting Steam Support, explaining what changed and how a tester can reach it.
• No live-generated adult-only sexual content made by AI; Valve cites legal and customer risks.
• Payment processor standards. In July 2025 Valve added a rule against content that may violate the standards of Steam's payment processors, card networks and banks, aimed in particular at certain kinds of adult-only content, and removed a number of adult games under it.

Players set content preferences in their Steam account, and your answers decide which of these apply to your game:

1. List what is in the build, not just what the player is meant to see: every asset, scene and line, including cut content still in the files.
2. Ask "some" or "frequent" honestly. A single death scene in a narrative game is not frequent violence; a shooter where every encounter ends in blood is.
3. Check the store page too. Screenshots, the trailer and the capsule must match what you declared; Valve also wants at least four screenshots marked suitable for all ages so the page can appear in all areas of the store.
4. Describe it in plain words in the free-text fields: "stylised blood when enemies are hit; two scenes of implied self-harm". Players read the notice.
5. When in doubt, disclose. The cost is a narrower audience among players who filter; the alternative risks the store page.

The mature content categories do not stop a game being sold. They decide how it appears relative to each player's own preferences: whether it shows up in browsing for a player who has filtered that category out, and whether a content notice appears on the store page. A game with Adult Only Sexual Content is hidden from players who have not opted in, which is most players, and faces the payment-processor rule above.

The General Content section of the same survey is a separate mechanism: it generates regional age ratings shown on the store page at release. A game can carry an age rating for violence without falling into a mature content filter, and vice versa. Our content survey guide covers all three sections.

• Horror without gore. Psychological horror, jump scares and disturbing themes usually belong in General Mature Content, not Violence or Gore.
• Cartoon violence. Comic, bloodless violence is still violence, but rarely "frequent violence or gore" in the sense players filter.
• User-generated content. If players can upload or create content, describe how you moderate it.
• Mods and unlockable modes. Content behind a setting or an unlock is still in the build and must be disclosed.
• A patch that adds content. Update the survey before the patch ships, through Steam Support if the answer is locked.

The survey is not the only place mature content shapes a launch:

• The store page itself. Pages for games with mature content can show an age check before the page loads, which adds a click between a player and your trailer.
• Trailers off Steam. Video platforms age-restrict graphic violence and sexual content, which limits where a trailer can be shown and whether it can be promoted; cut a clean version for broad use.
• Ads. Ad platforms have their own content policies, usually stricter than Steam's, for gore and sexual imagery in creatives.
• Creators and festivals. Some streamers and showcases avoid adult-only content; know before you pitch.

"When in doubt, disclose" can be taken too far. Declaring Frequent Violence or Gore for a game with a few cartoon hits removes it from the browsing of players who would have been fine with it, and an alarming content notice can put off parents buying for older children. The goal is accuracy, not maximum caution: describe what is there at the intensity it is there, and let players' own preferences do the rest.

Flockbay's Steam page drafts the content survey from your game's scenes, scripts and art, marked Drafted by Flockbay for you to check, and exports it in the page's .zip for you to enter in Steamworks. Steam holds you to the answers, so read every one. Preparing the page by hand and its .zip are free; drafting is free in beta until 1 December 2026.