Steam Wishlist Notifications: Why You Get No Sale Email and How to Fix It
Steam emails you when a wishlisted game gets a discount of 20% or more lasting over eight hours, at most once every two weeks per game. Check the Email box in Wishlist Activity, the category filter and your verified address.
A missing Steam wishlist sale notification does not tell you whether the problem is your account, your notification settings, the discount, or your inbox. Start with one discounted game and trace it through those places. You can usually narrow the problem without reinstalling Steam or rebuilding your wishlist.
Does Steam notify you when a wishlist game goes on sale?
Yes. Steam sends an email, a desktop toast, a mobile push or a feed item when a game on your wishlist gets a qualifying discount: at least 20%, lasting more than eight hours, on the game's lowest-priced package. Any kind of discount counts, so a weeklong deal triggers it as well as a big seasonal sale. That makes the wishlist a reasonable place to wait, once you have decided whether to buy now or wait for a sale at all.
Two limits apply. After any email about a game, that game goes on a two-week email cooldown, and one email lists at most 25 discounted games. Store-wide sale announcements are a separate notification type, There's a major sale, and they are not wishlist alerts.
Since July 2026 you can also sort the wishlist into categories and get notifications only for some of them. If that filter is set to anything other than All, games outside the chosen categories stay silent.
Steam wishlist sale notification rules to check first
Valve's Steamworks wishlist documentation specifies discounts of at least 20%, lasting more than eight hours, affecting the game's lowest-priced package. Discounting only a deluxe package does not qualify.
Valve also documents a two-week email cooldown per game, potentially longer during heavy traffic; its FAQ summarizes this as one to two weeks. Emails can take hours and may combine several games, up to 25 in one message; Valve stops trying to send an email that has been held up for more than a week. Recipients need a verified email address and suitable email permissions.
The claim that Steam emails only once per game, at its first-ever discount, is incorrect. Later eligible sales can generate messages after the cooldown.
Use those rules to evaluate the actual offer. Write down the edition, percentage reduction, and sale end time shown on the store page. A screenshot from a friend may show a different package or regional price. Compare what your own signed-in account can buy.
Where Steam wishlist notification settings live now
All wishlist alerts sit on one page: Notification Settings in your Steam account. The old email preferences link now opens the same page, although Valve's Steamworks help still describes the older Account Details route.
Look for the table called Wishlist Activity. The row An item on my wishlist is on sale has four checkboxes: Email, Client Toast, Mobile App and Feed, where Feed is the bell at the top of the Steam client. Tick each place where you want the alert. The rows for a released game and for a new demo offer email only. Under the table, Only notify me about these wishlist categories should show All unless you meant to narrow it.
Email alerts also need a verified address. Your Account Details page shows Verified under the email once it is confirmed. To change the address, open Steam → Settings → Account in the client, choose Change contact email…, then click the link Steam sends you.
Do not use a purchase receipt as your only test. Receiving a receipt proves that one kind of message arrived; it does not prove that wishlist marketing permissions are enabled. Similarly, a sale announcement in your inbox might concern the whole store rather than your saved game.
Reopen the preferences after changing them to confirm the selection persisted. If a save error appears, note the wording and try the web interface. Repeatedly toggling the setting without checking the saved state makes it harder to know what is currently enabled.
Steam email notifications you can and cannot turn off
You can turn off wishlist emails and Steam's marketing emails. Opting out of marketing does not stop purchase receipts or Steam Guard codes.
Wishlist emails follow the Email column in Wishlist Activity. For everything promotional, Steam's settings include Opt out from all email marketing communications, and Valve notes that you will still receive purchase receipts, Steam Guard access codes and other account-related notifications after you use it.
Steam wishlist notifications in the client and mobile app
An email, a Steam notification, and a phone banner are different delivery surfaces. A missing banner is not evidence that your mailbox failed. Valve's Steam Desktop Update describes the notification bell, a View all history, and controls for which notifications appear and where.
In the desktop client, open Steam → Settings → Notifications and look for the wishlist sale controls. You can also inspect the bell → View all for existing notices. Enable the destinations you actually use, then review any broader setting that suppresses noncritical notifications.
On your phone, open Steam Mobile and inspect its notifications while signed into the same account. Then check the phone's permission for Steam: on iPhone, Settings → Notifications → Steam → Allow Notifications; on Android, Settings → Notifications → App notifications → Steam. Android labels vary by phone. Focus modes and notification summaries can also affect when you see a banner.
If Steam contains a sale notice but your inbox does not, concentrate on email preferences and filtering. If the notice is visible inside the mobile app but never appears on the lock screen, concentrate on phone permissions. Neither test requires deleting the game from your wishlist.
Turn a Steam sale alert into a target-price plan
Choose a concrete condition: for example, the base game at $15 or less in your local currency. That is a hypothetical budget, not a quoted game price. Record whether you want the standard edition, a DLC bundle, or a complete edition, and check what is included before comparing totals. If you are also weighing a boxed copy or a controller on Amazon, an Amazon price history tracker such as Keepa or Camelcamelcamel shows whether its price is near its usual low.
Save the exact product page in dEssence through its Chrome extension, Telegram bot, or web app. Saving does not activate monitoring. Open the saved thing and set up price watching separately. Check that the page and displayed price correspond to your intended edition and region before relying on it.
Keep your target in a note and compare it with watched price changes; do not assume every watch is a custom threshold alert. If the page cannot supply a reliable price, use a manual calendar reminder before the sale closes instead.
For a persistent Steam email problem, collect one game's store link, sale dates, screenshots of your preferences, and which delivery surfaces worked. Give those details to Steam Support. A specific example is easier to investigate than “none of my alerts work,” especially when several games are discounted together.
Frequently asked questions
Does Steam email you every time a wishlist game is on sale?
No. It emails for discounts of 20% or more that last over eight hours and cover the cheapest edition, then waits at least two weeks before emailing about the same game again.
Why did I not get a Steam wishlist notification?
Check the Email box on the An item on my wishlist is on sale row, the category filter, and whether your address shows Verified. Then check the discount: one under 20%, one that lasts eight hours or less, or one that covers only a deluxe edition does not trigger an alert. When more than 25 wishlist games are on sale at once, some are left out of the email.
Can Steam alert me when a game drops to a certain price?
No. Steam's triggers are fixed, and the settings have no price field. IsThereAnyDeal lets you add games to a Waitlist, import your Steam wishlist and set notification rules, so it emails you only when a deal is good enough for you.
How do I turn off Steam wishlist notifications?
Untick the boxes on the An item on my wishlist is on sale row in Wishlist Activity, or limit the row to a few wishlist categories. In the desktop client, a notification type you turn off also stops appearing under the green bell.
Does the Steam mobile app send wishlist sale alerts?
Yes. Tick Mobile App on the wishlist sale row, then allow notifications for Steam on your phone: on iPhone in Settings → Notifications → Steam, on Android in Settings → Notifications → App notifications.