Steam Scream Fest 2026: Dates, Times and Horror Deals

The bigger surprise is who can't come. Scream V is a themed fest, not one of Steam's four seasonal sales, and Valve's 30-day discount rules apply to it in full. A game released in October can't take a Scream discount unless it set up a launch discount before release, so Hellraiser: Revival and Silver Pines stay at full price all week. We list them below, next to the horror games we have covered and what each costs today.

When does Steam Scream Fest 2026 start and end?

Valve's dates are 10 AM Pacific on both ends. Here is that moment in other zones (we converted these ourselves; the UK and Central Europe change clocks on October 25, the US on November 1):

So the fest runs 169 hours, not 168: everyone gets the hour US clocks hand back. It also means a reminder set for "17:00 UTC, November 2" fires an hour early, which is the best kind of wrong. Valve's upcoming events schedule lists the fest as October 26 to November 2, and our Steam sale calendar for 2026 has everything that follows it.

What's on sale in Steam Scream V

Valve's eligibility line is short: "Games that fall into the horror category, and explicitly Halloween-centric games." Its themed-fest rules add that "discount games are prioritized", while free games, games still in Coming Soon and games with demos are "also welcome to participate". So expect demos and wishlist bait next to the discounts.

Last year's edition gives the shape. Steam Scream IV ran October 27 to November 3, and Valve's announcement promised discounts "from now through November 3rd". Its official trailer is the best preview we have until Valve posts the Scream V one: The Quarry at 0:08, The Forest at 0:23, Phasmophobia at 0:40, MiSide at 0:46, and the end card with the dates at 0:56.

Screenshot: Steam Scream IV official trailer, Steam (YouTube), 0:41

Sons of the Forest is the one to watch from our own coverage. During Scream IV, an r/GameDeals deal post listed it at "68% off" for "$9.59", and one player on r/SonsOfTheForest wrote that they "finally got this for 416 INR($4.7) during the Steam scream event". This October it was already 71% off in the Autumn Sale, and it was back at $29.99 on October 23. The Autumn Sale is a seasonal sale, so that discount doesn't block a Scream one. Whether it joins is up to the publisher. Our Sons of the Forest complete guide is the place to start if it does.

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Horror games we've covered: prices before Scream V

These are the Steam US prices we checked on October 23, three days before the fest. The right-hand column is what Steam's discount rules say about each one; "publisher's call" means nothing visible stops a Scream discount.

Two calls from that table. Security 51 is the one to grab now if you want it: its 30% offer ends October 24, and the cooldown that follows keeps it off discount until about November 23. And THE DEAD WE KNEW will look like a Scream deal, but it's a launch offer on a game our Early Access report says to wait on, with Very Negative day-one reviews.

Why October's new horror games stay full price

Screenshot: Steam Scream IV official trailer, Steam (YouTube), 0:58

Valve's discounting page is blunt about it. "A product cannot be discounted for 30 days following its release", with one exception: a launch discount, which "can only be set up prior to product's release date". Launch discounts run 7 to 14 days. And a game "cannot be discounted within 30 days of another discount".

The exemption you may remember from the big sales doesn't stretch this far. Valve exempts only "the four seasonal seasonal sales: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter" (the typo is Valve's), and its FAQ says the cooldowns apply to "Steam Fests" by name. Scream V is a Fest.

In practice that rules out Hellraiser: Revival and Silver Pines (both out October 8) and PAPERHEAD (October 9) for the whole event. It also rules out anything whose last discount ended within the past month, which is why Security 51's offer matters. The flip side: games launching during the fest can carry a launch discount. Curse of Resthaven, one of our Next Fest horror demo picks, launches October 29, and HANDS OVER, the party horror game from our Next Fest demo preview, enters Early Access on October 30.

Steam Scream V deals we've checked

The discounts don't exist until 10 AM PT on October 26, and we won't guess them. On October 27 we will check every game in the table above against its live store page and add the Scream V price and discount here, with the time we checked. If a game you care about isn't on our list, wishlist it now: Valve says any discount of 20% or more "can automatically trigger wishlist notifications", so Steam will tell you on day one.

Temper the expectations a little. On r/Steam's Scream IV thread, one player asked "Am I the only one who feels this year's scream sale feels underwhelming?" The reply that stuck was the accurate one: "Valve just puts on the events, it's publishers who choose if they want to participate and what kind of sale they have."

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Halloween: The Game is the timely odd one out. Its Halloween 2026 content update adds a free Tower Farm map, and new paid versions of Michael go on sale on October 27, the day after Scream opens. Our Halloween: The Game review says who it suits at $39.99.

Our take

Treat Scream V as two lists. The older horror on our list is where the discounts can land, and Sons of the Forest has form: 68% off last Scream, 71% off this Autumn. The October releases are out of reach until well into November, so if Hellraiser: Revival is the one you want, the question is whether it's worth $39.99, not whether to wait a week. Our Hellraiser: Revival and Silver Pines reviews will be linked here once they publish.

How we checked this

On October 23, 2026 we read Steam's Scream page (store.steampowered.com/category/scream) and banner, Valve's upcoming-events and discounting pages, and Valve's Scream IV announcement. We pulled every price above from Steam's US store data, read each running offer's end date on the store page, and watched Valve's Scream IV trailer to log its timestamps. Valve's Scream V event page in the Steamworks docs returned an error, so the dates rest on the store page and the events schedule. We have not seen any Scream V discounts yet; nobody has.

References

• Steam Scream page on the Steam store
• Steamworks: Upcoming Steam Events
• Steamworks: Steam Themed Sale Events
• Steamworks: Discounting
• Steam: "Steam Scream 4 has arrived!" announcement
• Steam Scream IV: Official Trailer on YouTube
• Sons of the Forest on Steam
• Fears to Fathom: Scratch Creek on Steam
• Halloween: The Game on Steam and its Halloween 2026 Content Update
• The Sinking City 2 on Steam
• Static Dread: The Submarine on Steam
• Security 51 on Steam
• Creature Kitchen on Steam
• Saint of Chains on Steam
• The Last Winter Knight on Steam
• Luna Abyss on Steam
• Scarlet Deer Inn on Steam
• Besmirch on Steam
• Temple 13 - Time Collapse on Steam
• Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis on Steam
• THE DEAD WE KNEW on Steam
• PAPERHEAD on Steam
• Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival on Steam
• Silver Pines on Steam