Steam Winter Sale 2020 opens - The games up for grabs

Just as the prophecy (which in this case is SteamDB) foretold, the Steam Winter Sale officially kicked off today. This is one of Steam's biggest sales of the year, matched by only the Summer Sale, and much of Steam's catalog will be discounted for the next two weeks. On top of that, voting for The Steam Awards is also open, with the winners being announced once we're into 2021.

Specifically, Valve says that it will announce the winners of the Steam Awards on January 3rd, 2021 at 10AM PST. The Steam Winter Sale itself runs from today to January 5th, 2021 at 10 AM PST, giving Steam users two weeks exactly to make any purchases they've got their eyes on.

There are, as always, a lot of deals to look through, which is where things like Steam's Discovery Queue and Wishlist can come in particularly handy. As always, there's a new set of Steam Trading Cards to earn, and you'll get a card for each vote you cast for the Steam Awards. There are 10 categories to vote on in all – Game of the Year, VR Game of the Year, Labor of Love, Better With Friends, Most Innovative Gameplay, Outstanding Story-Rich Game, Best Game You Suck At, Outstanding Visual Style, Best Soundtrack Award, and the Sit Back and Relax Award.

You'll also get Winter Sale Trading Cards by purchasing games during the sale and by browsing your Discovery Queue each day. As with most recent sales, there are new items to buy in the Points Shop as well, with free bird stickers to claim periodically throughout the sale. New featured deals will be advertised on the front page today, with Steam advertising deals like Control Ultimate Edition for $19.99 (50% off), Phasmophobia for $12.59 (10% off), Octopath Traveler for $29.99 (50% off), and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice for $38.99 (35% off).

Keep in mind the deals that are available now will be available throughout the entire sale, so you don't need to worry about flash sales or deals that otherwise rotate in and out as the sale progresses. The Steam Sale is only one of the many video game sales happening at the moment, so be sure to check our round up of gaming sales that are currently happening.