Thousands of Steam users are supporting an idea that would change the way the gaming platform handles age verification requests, greatly speeding up the browsing and playing process for a lot of adult-age gamers. When it comes to PCs, Steam is the largest gaming platform in the world, with an estimated 132 million active users, but many older customers are tiring of constant age checks and are seeking a more user-friendly solution.
Figures indicate that Steam has been having a great last few years. By mid-November 2025, the brand had already generated around $16.2 billion in annual revenue, according to Alinea Analytics, blowing away its estimated total profit numbers of $10.8 billion from the year prior. Additionally, figures from February suggested that total sales of Valve’s Steam Deck had reached between 3.7 million and 4 million since the handheld computer’s initial North American and European launch in February 2022, providing another platform for accessing its services.
Steam Reportedly Asks User of 19 Years to Verify if They Are 18
In an amusing incident, Steam prompts a longtime user of 19 years to prove that they are over 18, following the enactment of a certain law.
But even with big sales numbers and lots of users, Steam customers are growing tired of having to manually enter their date of birth every time they want to view an age-restricted game’s page. That annoyance has led one Reddit user, SaveTheAles, to propose an idea to ensure age verification without inconveniencing older users, which has been liked more than 3,500 times within a matter of six hours. Under the plan, this highly wanted Steam feature would automatically bypass age verification checks for any account that is older than the minimum age required for playing a game or viewing its contents. Since Steam accounts are free to create, non-transferable, and linked to individual users’ e-mail addresses, any user whose account has been around for more than 18 years would never have to undergo another age verification request again if this quality-of-life feature were implemented.
Steam’s policy on age verification is pretty consistent throughout the world, though there are some regional variations that have been put into place to help Valve comply with the laws of different nations. For a large portion of the world, verifying one’s age on Steam is as simple as entering a date of birth, although this process must be repeated every time a user views the page of a game that is age-restricted, even on repeat visits to the same page. Other countries require more restrictive measures, such as the United Kingdom, where Steam implemented controversial age verification measures in late August, requiring the addition of a valid credit card in the user’s name in order to comply with the UK Online Safety Act.
Still, there are others who support Steam’s current age verification policies. One commenter stated they feel these measures are necessary because the account holder may not be the one playing games on Steam, with the possibility of their children, younger siblings, or other minors gaining access to graphically violent or sexual content. However, as fans were quick to point out, allowing another person to access using their Steam account violates Valve’s terms of service, which don’t even allow for a Steam account to be passed on after the user’s death. There are other ways for Steam users to let other household members play their games, though, as the Steam Family Sharing feature lets users share their games with up to six other accounts.
Other concerns surround the possibility of Steam users selling their game accounts. That’s another violation of the terms of service, but there are recorded incidents of it happening, like in 2020, when a Polish man faced more than 9,000 criminal charges for selling online game accounts between 2014 and 2018. Though concerns like these still persist, some users are calling for simpler age verification bypass measures, like Steam remembering their previously entered date of birth and autopopulating that information into the request form when an age verification is required.
