Steam Winter Sale Kicks Off With Easy To Get Trading Cards

The annual Steam Winter Sale kicked off Tuesday, December 22 with thousands of PC games discounted, trading cards, and even a free webcomic. Deal hunters should expect two weeks’ worth of price cuts; just don’t wait for the daily deals because they aren’t showing up.

Seemingly every game across every genre is currently on sale through the Steam Winter Sale until January 4, 2016, at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. The deals include AAA franchises like Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Grand Theft Auto V to breakout indie hits like Rocket League and ARK: Survival Evolved. Deal hunters can find discounts from 10 to 95 percent off the regular price, depending on the title.

Those that have problems finding a deal can browse their Steam Discovery Queue. This gives users personalized game recommendations based on their own purchase, browsing, and wish list history from their Steam account. The Discovery Queue will have different recommendations each time you visit.

Unlike previous sales, the Steam Winter Sale will not have Flash and Daily sales. This was first started with the Steam Autumn sale with the intention of keeping a single discount level for games during the entirety of the sale instead of the previous system that had shoppers scanning the Flash and Daily sales to try and find the lowest possible discount and sometimes missing out.

Those that need help tracking down all of the Steam Winter Sales should check out the Steam Database sales tracker. This tool can help find which of the more than 9,000 games on sale have the biggest discount, lowest price, etc.

Trading cards also return with the Steam Winter Sale and are possibly the easiest they’ve ever been to earn. Simply visiting the Discovery Queue once daily will reward one trading card. Visiting it twice more will earn two more trading cards for a maximum of three a day.

There is a stipulation that users must be Steam Level 5 and above to receive cards from visiting the Discovery Queue. If you reach Steam Level 5 during the Steam Winter Sale, you will retroactively earn trading cards that would have been granted by visiting the queue.

The North Pole Noir Sale trading cards can also be earned by crafting a game badge, spending $10 on Steam, trading for them, or purchasing them from the Community market.

Valve also released a Steam sale comic called, “Gingerbread Jake In: North Pole Noir.” The cover and first page of the Winter Comic are available to view now with subsequent pages to be released daily.

Here is the list of the currently featured deals and top sellers for the first day of the Steam Winter Sale.

• ARK: Survival Evolved– $17.99
• Besiege – $5.59
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – $44.99
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – $7.49
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Legendary Edition – $9.99
• Game of Thrones – A Telltale Game Series – $10.19
• Grand Theft Auto V – $35.99
• Hurtworld – $19.99
• Just Cause 3– $47.99
• Kerbal Space Program– $23.99
• Killing Floor 2 – $20.09
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – $40.19
• Might & Magic Heroes VII – $24.99
• Rocket League– $13.99
• Sid Meier’s Beyond Earth– $15.99
• Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Complete Edition – $12.49
• Tropico 3: Steam Special Edition – $2.49
• Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition – $4.99
• Tropico 5 – $9.99
• Undertale– $7.99
• The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition – $2.99
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt– $29.99

What Steam Winter Sale deals have you excited, and which games are you considering purchasing? Sound off in the comments below.

[Image via Steam]