The Steam Summer Sale is underway, and lots of games are at great prices.

Finding the best deals takes a bit of work, but it's well worth it and gives you a chance to expand your Steam library without spending too much money. However, that doesn't mean you have to buy every title you see, but buying wisely can help you get bargains on games you actually want to play.

The Steam Summer Sale begins on June 24 and runs through July 8. Along with the Winter Sale, the Steam Summer Sale is usually one of the store's two biggest events of the year, offering the best deals on Steam games.

Where to start: the Steam Summer Sale 2021 has plenty of great games to choose from, covering virtually every genre and price range. We've compiled a list of our favorites below. For a more complete list, check out our Best Games of the Steam Summer Sale feature.

Use Your Wish List

Your wish list is your first stop for finding the best deals on games during the Steam sale. Whenever you see a game (or DLC) that interests you, add it to your Wish List; Steam will notify you whenever that game goes on sale.

The games you add to your wishlist will probably be more interesting to you than random games you find in the sale section. If you find a great deal on one of the games on your wish list, it may be best to grab it and consider other options later.

Follow the following Twitter accounts

We also recommend following Twitter accounts like @Wario64 and @videogamedeals. Both do a great job of highlighting the best deals in gaming, and there are also subreddits like r/GameDeals and r/Steamdeals that are worth subscribing to.

Finally, just because a game you've had your eye on is on sale on Steam doesn't mean it's the best deal online; be sure to cross-check IsThereAnyDeal.com and SteamDB to see if the current price is actually the best price and Be sure to cross-check IsThereAnyDeal.com and SteamDB to make sure the current price is actually the best price.

Check the Steam Database

The Steam Database is a third-party site that does a great job of tracking Steam sales and prices of individual games over time. On the site's sales page, once the Steam Summer Sale starts, you can see all the games included in the Summer Sale.

You can sort the games by price, rating, release date, and most importantly, discount percentage. If the latter is blue, it means that the game is the cheapest on Steam. If it is green, it matches the all-time lowest price for that game. This is a great way to see the lowest price of a sale at a glance.

Clicking on a game from the list will bring up more information, including the price in each Steam region and a chart that tracks prices over time. There is also information on multiplayer, controllers, cloud, and whether the game supports remote play.

Check the Steam homepage

It's the first place many Steam bargain hunters visit during a sale, and not a bad way to check which major games have been discounted Steam usually spotlights the biggest games in a sale Since it shines a spotlight on them, you may find a welcome discount if you've missed some of the most talked-about games in recent years until now.

Take your time

The Steam Summer Sale lasts for several weeks, so don't rush to buy everything you're interested in. Take your time. Think long and hard about which games you are likely to play in the coming months. You probably don't need to buy dozens of games for your library right now. You have time, so take a few days and consider whether each game is something you will want in the near future. If not, spend your money on something else.

Get lots of indie games

If you're not sure what you want, try indie games. For a few dollars to a few dozen dollars, you should be able to get a lot of indie games. You might be able to get 5-6 indie titles for the same price as one AAA title.

Wait for a better sale

If there is a particular game you want to buy, but the discount is much smaller or not on sale, wait anyway. You may find a great deal someday. Besides, if you've been putting off your purchase until the Steam Summer Sale, you may be able to wait a little longer for prices to drop. You can also check Steam resellers to see if they have better deals. Of course, you can also refer to IsThereAnyDeal.com or SteamDB for historical price data.