Valve overhauls tag system on Steam to improve game discoverability

Valve has significantly overhauled Steam’s game tagging system, introducing 17 new tags while removing 28 existing ones in the first major revision since 2024. The changes aim to improve game discoverability and help Steam’s recommendation algorithm better understand and surface appropriate titles to players.

Removed tags included ‘NSFW’ and ‘Mature,’ which Valve deemed redundant with more specific descriptors like ‘Gore,’ ‘Violent,’ and ‘Sexual Content.’ Subjective tags such as ‘Well-Written’ and ‘Masterpiece’ were eliminated due to inconsistent application and community disagreement. Others like ‘Drama’ and ‘Ambient’ were removed for having limited applicability across the platform’s catalog.

One notable addition is a new tag to categorize ‘Vampire Survivors’-like games, settling a long-standing industry debate about naming this action roguelite subgenre. The removal of the ‘RPGMaker’ tag—which players had used to identify games made with or resembling RPG Maker engine titles—was surprisingly well-received by developers, who viewed it as obscuring rather than clarifying their work.

According to Valve, tags serve dual purposes: helping developers describe their games to players and enabling Steam to understand game classification for more targeted recommendations. The revamped system also affects content hubs that organize games by genre and theme. This comprehensive update reflects evolving player interests and industry trends within the gaming ecosystem.

Sources

• Valve overhauls tag system on Steam to improve game discoverability
• Steam Adds, Edits, and Removes Dozens of Store Tags
• Steam killed its ‘RPGMaker’ user tag yesterday, and impacted devs are unexpectedly happy about it
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• Steam’s NSFW and Mature tags ditched by Valve in favour of “more descriptive” ones like Sexual Content and Gore, as part of wider revamp