Steam: How to Family Share Games

Share your collection with your family!

How to Family Share Games on Steam

Recommended Videos

If you’re an avid Steam user, you may already know that you can share your own personal Steam library with your family. It’s not a feature that’s as widely advertised as it could be, but nevertheless it’s there for you to use, and a very awesome way for you to let family members check out the games you’ve purchased so they don’t have to spend the money twice.

Steam Family Library Sharing is very simple to set up, and when it’s complete you can share games from your account library with members of your family (or with friends). To get started, make sure everyone you plan on adding into the fold has the two-factor account verification feature Steam Guard enabled, which will help keep all the accounts safe and secure.

Then head into Steam, open up your main client, and go to the Settings menu. From there, look for the “Family” option in the menu here, and click it. Find the box that says “Authorize Library Sharing” and click the check box. This will now allow local Steam accounts on your computer to use the games in your library. You can also do this with friends. If someone else authorizes you to use their library, you can have them sign in on your computer and enable sharing so that you can even use their games without a local account.

You’ll be limited to sharing your account with up to five others across a maximum of 10 devices, and you can’t simply share one game specifically, as your entire library must be shared. You can also only allow others to play your games in your library when you’re not actually using them at the time. Keep in mind that not all games are able to be shared, either.

But if you want to let mom, dad, or little brother or sister onto your account and try out some of your games, this is a great and simple way to go about it. It should also save you some of that hard-earned dough. That’s the beauty of it all.


Twinfinite is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article Is AO3 Down? How To Check Archive of Our Own Server Status
Is AO3 Down? How To Check Archive of Our Own Server Status
Read Article How to Make Guts in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2 Character Praparing Two Handed Sword Swing Like Guts From Berserk
Read Article How to Get EXP & Level Up Stats Fast in Solo Leveling Arise
Igris in Solo Leveling Arise
Related Content
Read Article Is AO3 Down? How To Check Archive of Our Own Server Status
Is AO3 Down? How To Check Archive of Our Own Server Status
Read Article How to Make Guts in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2 Character Praparing Two Handed Sword Swing Like Guts From Berserk
Read Article How to Get EXP & Level Up Stats Fast in Solo Leveling Arise
Igris in Solo Leveling Arise
Author
Brittany Vincent
Brittany Vincent is the former News Editor at Twinfinite who covered all the video games industry's goings on between June 2017 and August 2018. She's been covering video games, anime and tech for over a decade for publications like Otaku USA, G4, Maxim, Engadget, Playboy and more. Fueled by horror, rainbow-sugar-pixel-rushes, and video games, she’s a freelancer who survives on surrealism and ultraviolence. When she’s not writing, watching anime or gaming, she’s searching for the perfect successor to visual novel Saya no Uta.