The Steam Halloween Sale begins with the Steam store going down (Update: It's back!)

(Image credit: Valve)

The Steam Halloween Sale for 2019 is alive! The spooky savings event features deals on horror and horror-adjacent games, and also provides a handy rundown on games that are running Halloween-themed events. The Steam store went down for a couple of hours right after the sale first appeared, but now it's back, so have at it. 

This isn't one of the big seasonal Steam sales, so you're not going to find the cavalcade of extreme savings that you might expect from, say, the Holiday Sale, but when the store comes back there are still some deals to be had. Observer for 75 percent off is a solid pick if you missed it going free on the Epic Games Store a couple of weeks ago, Little Nightmares is down to $5—also 75 percent off—as is Dead Space 2, which despite not being as horrific as the original is still a fun, very splattery shooter. And if you're a point-and-click fan (and I am, which is why I bring it up), the excellent supernatural story Unavowed is 30 percent off, taking it to just over a tenner. 

A few more suggestions, because that's what I do:

The Halloween Events rosters might be handy if you're wondering, for instance, whether F1 2019 is doing something to celebrate Halloween this year. (It is.) There's also an interesting little widget thing in the sale logo that you can twist and rotate in what I assume are meaningless ways. But maybe there's a secret? (I doubt it, but you never know—keep spinning and clicking, and let us know if something falls out.)

The Steam Halloween 2019 Sale will be live whenever the store starts working again and runs until 10 am PT/1 pm ET on November 1. In case you hadn't heard, GOG is also having a Halloween sale.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.