this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2026
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Steam Hardware

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A place to discuss and support all Steam Hardware, including Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and SteamOS in general.

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There is not much to specify for the question, its really simple: Which title is the first game you have purchased on Steam? Was it a good decision? How much did you pay? When was it and what device? You don't have to answer all questions, this is just a fun discussion to have.

You can check your history: https://store.steampowered.com/account/history/ Edit: Some in the comments pointed out that the purchase history doesn't go back all to the beginnings of Steam. So if you purchased something earlier, it won't be listed on your account.

(I reply with my game too.)

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago

The orange box. ~$50. Great purchase.

[–] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 63 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Orange Box - well, technically Steam came with it...

[–] Gumus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yup. First Steam account created 24th of December (guess why) 2007 for Orange Box.

Back then, it was possible to play Team Fortress 2 on one account on two PCs at the same time, but not on the same server. So my brother and I sat beside each other playing TF2 "together", but each on a different server.

We did this until we gathered enough money to buy a second copy of Team Fortress 2 in April of 2008. We were finally able to play both in the same match and it was glorious.

We both have and use these accounts to this day.

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[–] Muffi@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago

The Orange Box. Greatest gaming value-for-your-buck there ever was.

[–] gothmog@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

the orange box

[–] SpiceDealer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The Talos Principle. That was in 2016, when I created my Steam account. It was also the first game I bought legally. I will now proceed to install it on my Steam Deck.

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[–] nightlily@leminal.space 27 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I‘m old - Half-Life 2 in the box. I had dial-up. Needless to say I loathed Steam and it’s puke green interface through the 00s. I’m still not exactly fond of it.

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[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

apparently cities skylines on 14 march 2015

[–] dangrousperson@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Counter Strike Source, June 25th 2010

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

the og sierra retail box of counter-strike is my steam originator code.

my purchase history wouldn't go back far enough for the few steam sales items i have on it. the only other retail box added was hl2 the week it came out.

TF2 after playing the orange box at a friend's.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 25 points 4 days ago (5 children)

According to this page my first in store purchase was Audiosurf in 2008, and yeah - great decision and great game. I put 80 hours into it for $10.

But my actual first "steam game" was Half Life 2 in a box from a department store

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[–] CaptainBasculin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Race: the WTCC Game was my first Steam game, I’ve bought a CD of the game and it came with a Steam key. I’ve pretty much forgotten about it until I heard of this new game called Portal 2 and it needs a Steam account to buy. Tried registering and whoops, you already have an account on this email.

The game itself currently cannot be purchased on its own , the bundle the game’s included costs 40$ which i don’t think is worth just for that game.

Currently I have 250 games bought and 700ish more with Family Share.

[–] 5parky@lemmy.world 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Half Life 2 retail standard. August 18, 2005.

I didn't even know that this list was available. There's a ton of games on there that I've never played because I bought them to play after I upgraded my computer and forgot about them. I have a steam deck now and really should go back and try them out.

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[–] DudeImMacGyver@kbin.earth 16 points 4 days ago (7 children)
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[–] TheBrones@feddit.nl 4 points 3 days ago

Garry's Mod

[–] Shayeta@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago

Call of Duty Black Ops 1. It needed something called a "steam qccount" to work? Couldn't just install and play it straight from the disk?

[–] Defectus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Zeno Clash i 2009

[–] Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

Mine is Subnautica in 2015 for $18. I currently have about 200 hours playtime on it. Also have 140 hours on below zero.

The oldest game on my account is Torchlight 2, but first purchased game was Ascension, the deckbuilding game. Or the Crucible DLC for Grim Dawn if that counts.

[–] dosse91@lemmy.trippy.pizza 5 points 3 days ago

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, in 2006

[–] SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

Surprised on this one, but it's actually Geometry Dash. I already played it on mobile, but know it was better to play on PC. Got Cities Skylines soon after.

[–] joat_mon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Portal in 2007!

[–] blomvik@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People in 2009 50% off for ~18€. Presumely because the game was full price on the Telltale site.

And it was a really good decision.

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[–] Chingzilla@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

My first game on Steam was Counter Strike, but I had already been playing the retail release for a while. They had some one-time activation to bring over your CD key. When they launched Steam, it was horrible. Remember, this was the time of single core processors (Pentium 4), so any anything that interrupted the cpu would effect your FPS. Plus it was buggy and crashed all the time.

I boycotted Steam and Valve and kept playing pre-steam CS 1.6 till the Orange Box came out. But TF2, Portal, and HL2 plus episode 1 was too good of a deal to pass up, and I had a new AMD Athlon that felt like a beast at the time.

Kinda sad I forgot my original account, would have been neat to have an account as old as Steam. Oh well.

[–] pgs@aussie.zone 2 points 3 days ago

Same here, CounterStrike, and also lost my original account. Don't even know which email it used, my work account at the time (borged at least twice since then), or one of four ISPs I went through around then.

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[–] jagermo@feddit.org 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Half-Life 2. steam was mandatory to play it and the shitstorm around it was something else. But I learned quickly, that youbcpuld just switch languages to not only download the original version but also the uncut one. Loved steam ever since.

[–] CountVon@sh.itjust.works 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I remember that whole kerfuffle. It spawned the first meme gif I can recall seeing. Warning, moderately NSFW:

spoiler

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[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

Age of Empires II HD.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 12 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I think that page only tracks 2008 and newer

Because my "first" purchace aparently was in 2009, and by that point my steam account was already in active use for 6 years.

The first game that I used steam for was CS 1.6 - about a week after steam launched.

And I think the first new game I paid money for and added to steam was HL2

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[–] prenatal_confusion@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago

Half life 2

[–] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

First game I activated was a retail copy of Half-Life Platinum Pack, in August 2004. I had made by account few months earlier just for fun right after Steam originally launched.

The first games I bought from Steam specifically was the Orange Box, and AudioSurf in 2007.

The orange box was $61, which inflation adjusted means it cost $99 :)

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[–] Meatwagon@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 days ago (4 children)

Skyrim. I was forced to download Steam to play it. I was on dial up and had just explicitly purchased a single player game not dependent on the internet, and yet..

Then it forced me download the game through Steam even though I had the physical disk right there. I couldn't complete the download, it was too large.

[–] Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oof, being on dial-up when skyrim released would be rough. I was on dial up until 2010 or so, and pretty much had to go other places to download anything onto a USB and then transport it back home.

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[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 10 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

Ragdoll Kung-Fu

It was pretty fun back in the day. It was one of the first games even sold on the platform, too.

Now, I did own Half-Life and the stand alone Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike releases that switched over to being on Steam and needing Steam to play online after the WON servers were shut down. But I bought those in a store, before Steam was even announced.

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[–] remotedev@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

I grew up as a console kid so I apparently didn't buy a game on steam til 2017 but it was civ 3 complete edition and cities skylines. Edit: I did have PC games but always bought them separate. I remember zoo tycoon 1/2/ultimate, red alert 1/2 as early games

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[–] Sanctus@anarchist.nexus 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

According to my history, Killing Floor was the first game I actually bought in July 2012 but I installed DC Universe Online (gross) alongside it.

Jan 16, 2010 The Orange Box

[–] weegee90@lemmy.world 9 points 4 days ago (1 children)

First game was Portal, but I got it free when Portal 2 came out. First games I spent money on and got on Steam were a couple of Humble Bundles (Introversion, Egosoft, EA). My first purchase actually from Steam was Goat Simulator.

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[–] northernlights@lemmy.today 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)
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Counter Strike: Source

[–] Quadrexium@sopuli.xyz 2 points 3 days ago

Terraria back in 2014

[–] Memnochian@aussie.zone 6 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Yeah link is definitely wrong. Mine is saying Dow 2 in 09, but I remember being pissed because I had to get an account and spend 3 days downloading updates on 56k just to play hl2 which came on 6 cds in the first place. And why did I have to use this stupid store just to play a single player game that I bought and installed physically.... Then I actually played the game and was amazed with the seewsaw section with bricks. So y'know, worth it.

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[–] Leather@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't have a clue. I would have guessed Half-Life or Counterstrike, but those predate Steam. Diablo was Blizzard.

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[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Oh god! Now I need to check my purchase history from maybe 12-13 years ago and hope it isn't a cringy game! BRB!

Edit:

Good new! It isn't completely cringe, but it's Garry's Mod, with the next game being Goat Simulator. So I wasn't a complete cringe lord... just halfway cringe!

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[–] Jumi@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I don't even have to look it up because I still remember it fondly. In I think 2013 I bought Company of Heroes

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