Computer game prices are rising, and we don’t want to miss out on the latest releases, but we also need to save money. You can share a game library with friends, for example, on Steam. Valve has a tool that solves this problem. Let’s figure out how it all works.

Steam Family Sharing: How It Works

Since September 2013, Steam has had an old family sharing system in place—Family Sharing. In the fall of 2024, Valve released updated Family Groups, completely reimagining the old approach.

The platform now features a new Steam Families ecosystem . It combines family sharing and parental controls. Multiple people can now play different games from a shared library simultaneously. And the account owner no longer needs to go offline: previously, if someone in the group launched a game from the library, the account owner would lose access to their own games.

Steam Family Library is designed so that each member has their own saves, cloud access, and individual achievements. This means no one will accidentally overwrite your progress or ruin your profile stats.

What are the restrictions?

🌍 Only one store region. All participants must be from the same country. For example, you can’t connect a friend from Kazakhstan or Turkey to a Russian account. The platform determines the region based on payment information and purchase history. 

👤 One copy per player. If a group has only one copy of Cyberpunk 2077, only one person can play it at a time. Another example: to play the co-op shooter Helldivers 2 with two players, you’ll need two licenses—the number of concurrent Steam Family Sharing sessions is equal to the number of copies purchased.

➕ Not all DLC can be shared. Guests receive the full game along with all of the owner’s add-ons—meaning if your friend has Phantom Liberty and Cyberpunk, you’ll get it too, expanding your base game collection. However, if you already own the base game, you can’t share other people’s DLC; you’ll have to purchase it yourself.

🎮 The game owner will be banned. If someone in a multiplayer game uses cheats, the ban will be applied to the game copy, meaning its owner.

👥 Only six people per group. A Steam Family Group is designed for the creator and five guests.

🔗 Games with third-party launchers. Sometimes publishers themselves disable family sharing. Ubisoft, EA, and Rockstar link titles to their own services, so GTA V or Assassin’s Creed only work for those who own them.

🆓 Free games and subscription-based projects. These can’t be made publicly available at all. You can check whether a specific game is available directly in the store: there’s a corresponding mark on the page.

What else is written in the rules?

Before starting a family on Steam , it’s worth going over the platform’s rules—there are a couple of non-obvious points.

To join a family group, you must have Steam Guard enabled. This is two-factor account protection that sends verification codes via email or the Steam mobile app. It’s impossible to enable it right before inviting someone—Valve requires Steam Guard to be running for at least seven days. New accounts with newly enabled protection won’t be added to the family group, no matter what you do.

Family Sharing cannot be used for commercial purposes. Game cafes, computer clubs, and any scenarios where many random people launch games from the same library are against the rules. The platform monitors such patterns and blocks the sharing feature for all member accounts.

Steam doesn’t allow you to sell or transfer accounts to other people, even within your family. This means that if you decide to gift an account with all your games to your younger brother, it’s technically a violation of the user agreement. In practice, no one will punish you for this, but it will be used against you in a support dispute.

Each participant remains responsible for their own game profile . Achievements, cards, and competitive game rankings are all tied to the individual account, not the family account. If a friend earns you achievements in Stardew Valley, you won’t get them: everyone earns progress individually, and sharing isn’t possible.

How to create a family group on Steam and set up sharing

Setting it up takes about five minutes. Open the Steam client on your computer and go to the top menu → “Settings” → “Family.” From there, click the button to create a new group. Steam will ask you to name it, and after that, the feature will work immediately.

All that’s left to do is invite participants. There’s an invite button in the control panel: select someone from your friends list or generate a digital code. The invitee will receive a notification directly in the Steam client.

When sending an invite, you must select a role—”Adult” or “Child.” Adults have full administrator rights: they can manage the group and invite new people. Child profiles are subject to parental controls and cannot change their own settings.

To accept the invitation, a friend clicks on the notification in the client or follows the link in the email. 

You can also approve requests and invite participants from your smartphone: open the Steam mobile app → account settings → “Family Management.”

How to play in Steam Family Mode

To launch someone else’s game, open the “Library” tab. The Steam Family Library section will appear in the left column , listing all the titles shared by your friends. Select the one you want, click “Launch,” and play.

The main advantage of Steam Family is parallel sessions. Previously, the account owner would be kicked out of the library as soon as one of their friends tried to access it. Now, everyone launches their own title from the shared pool and doesn’t interfere with anyone else. One person is playing Hollow Knight, another is playing Stardew Valley, a third is playing Elden Ring, and all of it is seamlessly pulled from one person’s collection.

How to set up parental controls on Steam and manage restrictions

If your family group includes younger members—children, nieces, nephews, or siblings—you can conveniently monitor their game access using the same group settings. Only members with “Adult” status have access to these features.

Through the account settings, adults can see statistics for each child: how many hours they’ve played, what games they’ve played, and when they last logged into Steam. They can also set limits—for example, no more than two hours a day or only on weekends. You can also block the store, chat, communities, and forums to prevent your child from accidentally encountering inappropriate content. 

Children’s accounts don’t purchase anything themselves—their wallets are blocked by default. If a child wants a new game, the request automatically goes to the adult, who can approve or decline the transaction.

The roles of Steam family group members change at any moment. When the youngest child grows up, promote them to an adult, and the limits are automatically lifted. When the university exam period starts, it’s time to close the door on competitive gaming, no more Dota or CS:GO.

How to exit Family Mode on Steam

Sometimes you need to make room for a new person, and in some cases it’s easier to just close the steam family and reassemble it with other people.

After logging out, access to other players’ libraries is immediately blocked. But there’s a catch! Valve has introduced timeouts to prevent players from abusing this feature.

👆 Personal cooldown. If you leave a group and decide to rejoin a Steam family with a different group, you’ll have to wait exactly 365 days. The cooldown starts from the moment you joined your previous family, not from the moment you left.

✌️ Slot blocking . A vacated slot holder is also blocked for 12 months; the annual timeout is counted from the moment the person joined.

👊 Group dissolution. When an entire family group is dissolved, a one-year ban on creating a new family or joining an existing one applies to everyone without exception.

A stable circle of friends or family will save you from unnecessary blocks, support requests, and months of waiting. It’s better to live amicably and agree on everything once and for all than to watch a new game sit in the store for six months without the option to borrow it from a friend on Steam.

How Family Sharing Works on Steam Deck and in VR

Family Library works the same on any platform. Games shared through a Steam family group download and play seamlessly on Steam Deck and VR headsets—no separate access required.

With “Deck,” everything is incredibly simple. Just go to your library on your device, open the Family Library section, select the desired title, and it downloads like a regular game. Co-op mode is also available, as long as you have two copies of the title in your family.

The principle is the same with VR games. If a game supports virtual reality and is in the owner’s family library, you can download it and launch it with your headset. Half-Life: Alyx, Subnautica, and other VR titles are shared among participants just like any other games in the catalog. The only requirement is that everyone must have their own VR headset: sharing a single headset is not possible for obvious reasons. 

If you plan to share a Steam game with a friend who has both a Steam Deck and a VR headset, you won’t have any problems. The limit remains the same: one copy of the game can be played by one person at a time, regardless of whether they’re playing on a desktop computer, a laptop, or in VR.