Buying game CDs and DVDs was an interesting thing back in the “olden” days. Nowadays, everything is digital, including buying games. Valve Corporation’s Steam is a very popular digital distribution service for games. Users can register with Steam; choose a game they like and buy it. It is that simple. Every Steam user has a unique identification number known as Steam ID. In this Steam guide, we will focus on Steam ID, find out its importance, and also how to find Steam ID.
A Brief Note on Steam
In 2003, Valve Corporation, a video game developer, launched Steam, a digital video game distribution service. It initially hosted only the games from Valve. But in 2005, Steam started publishing third-party game titles as well.
Steam has desktop applications for all three major desktop operating systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux). Just install the application, log in with your credentials, buy and game, and download it.
Some important features of Steam applications are that it automatically installs game updates. You can also view your friend’s games list as well as communicate with them using its in-game voice chat feature.
What is Steam ID?
When you register with Steam, it assigns you a unique identification number known as Steam ID. This is a 17-digit string that is associated only with your account.
Note that Steam ID is different from your Steam Username, which you use to log in to Steam. It is also not the same as your Display Name, which is the name that appears to other Steam users.
Your Steam ID is unique to your account and you cannot change it.
Why Do You Need to Know Steam ID?
Chances are, you might not need to know your Steam ID at all. But the interesting thing is Steam sometimes allows two or more users to have the same username. This becomes a problem if you are trying to look for an account but find more than one account with that username.
This is where Steam ID comes in handy. Using this unique string of numbers, users can easily identify an account.
Another reason why you might need to know your Steam ID is to use some third-party services.
One popular reason is if you want to link your Steam Account with game developers such as Ubisoft, Epic, or EA.
How to Find Steam ID?
Now that we have seen what is Steam ID and its importance, let us see how to find Steam ID.
- On your desktop (Windows, Mac, or Linux system), open the Steam Application.
- Log in to your Steam Account with your credentials.
- On the top-right, you can see your profile name with a drop-down menu.
- Click on the down arrow option adjacent to your profile name. You can see different options here.
- Click on the “View my profile” option.
- Just below the “Community Header”, you can see an URL.
- The URL will be in the form of “https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/12345678901234567”
- The 17-digit code in the URL is your Steam ID.
What if You Can’t See the URL?
Sometimes, the settings in your Steam application will prevent it from showing URLs. Here are the steps to enable it.
- Open your desktop Steam application.
- Login with your credentials, if not logged in already.
- In the top-left, you can see “Steam”, “View”, “Friends”, etc.
- Click on ‘View’. At the bottom, you can see ‘Settings’. Click on it.
- From the left options, click on ‘Interface’.
- On the right, look for “Display web address bars when available”.
- Check this option to enable URLs.
- After this, you can follow the previous method to find your Steam ID.
What if You Set a Custom URL?
Steam allows you to customize your URL. So, when you see the link, you do not see the actual Steam ID but your custom string. If you previously set a custom URL, then you need to follow the below steps to find your Steam ID.
- As usual, open the Steam app and log in.
- Click on your profile name in the top-right corner and click on the “View my profile” option.
- On the right, you can see the “Edit Profile” option. Click on it.
- Select ‘General’ on the left.
- You can see a “CUSTOM URL (?)” section with the custom URL you entered previously just below that.
- Remove it. As soon as you remove it, you can see the URL change below, revealing the Steam ID.
- You can copy this ID.
- Next, if you want to continue with Steam ID in your URL, click on the ‘Save’ option below.
- If you don’t want to show Steam ID in the URL and go back to the custom URL, click on cancel.
Another Method on How to Find Steam ID
- Open your Steam application and log in using your Steam username and password.
- On the top-right, you can see your profile name.
- Click on the down arrow next to your profile name.
- Then from the list, click on the “Account details” option.
- On the top, just below your profile name, you can see your Steam ID.
Conclusion
Steam is a very popular video game distribution service. With more than 150 million active users and close to 40,000 games, it is the largest digital distribution system for PC games.
In this guide, we saw the basics of Steam. After that, we saw what is Steam ID and what is its need. Finally, we saw different methods on how to find steam ID.
