Frequently asked questions
Everything about finding the games your Steam friends own in common and voting on what to play. Still stuck? Email [email protected].
What is Steamr?
Steamr is a free tool for working out what to play when you are all online and nobody can decide. It finds the games you all own on Steam, then runs a quick vote on them. Everyone picks in secret, everyone gets one veto, and you come out with a single game. No account, nothing to install.
Do I need an account, or to sign up for anything?
No. There is no Steamr account for you or for anyone you invite. Sign in through Steam if that is easier, or just paste your Steam ID or profile URL instead. If you do sign in, that happens on Steam's own site, so we never see your password. Everyone else clicks your invite link and they are in.
Is Steamr free?
Yes. No subscription, no premium version, no ads, no account.
How do I find the games my friends and I both own on Steam?
Add yourself, pick who's playing, and Steamr checks all of those Steam libraries at once and shows you the multiplayer games everyone owns. Steam's own profile filter only does you and one friend at a time. Steamr does the whole group in one go, and leaves out anything single-player so you only see stuff you can actually play together.
How does voting work in Steamr?
Three rounds. First everyone marks the games they would actually play, and nobody can see anyone else's picks while that is happening. Then each person gets one veto to take out a game they do not want. Then whatever survives gets scored and one game wins.
What is the difference between Diplomatic and Variety mode?
Diplomatic is ranked voting. Everyone puts the remaining games in order, your top pick is worth the most points, and the highest total wins. You get whatever the group is happiest with overall. Variety is the same thing with a bit of luck in it. Every vote a game got becomes one ticket in a draw, so the popular ones are still most likely to win but they aren't certain. Use Diplomatic when you want a fair result and Variety when you keep ending up on the same game.
What is the veto round?
Once everyone's picks are in, each person gets to remove exactly one game. A vetoed game is out and cannot win, no matter how many votes it had. Nobody sees who vetoed what. It is there because without it, a game that four people quite like and one person hates keeps winning, and that person quietly stops turning up.
Can Steamr pick a game at random?
Sort of, though it is better than a coin flip. Variety mode picks the winner at random, but the draw is weighted by what people voted for. Every vote a game got is one ticket, so a game three people wanted is three times as likely to come up as one that got a single vote. Anything vetoed is out of the draw completely. If nobody has voted yet then everything is equally likely, which is a straight random pick from your shared games.
Does Steamr work with private Steam profiles?
No, it can only read public libraries. If someone's games aren't showing up, they'll need to set both their Steam profile and their game details to Public in their Steam privacy settings.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It all runs in the browser, for you and for everyone you invite.
How many friends can join one session?
As many as you want. The more people you add, the shorter the shared list gets, which is largely the point. People can join while you are still gathering or while picks are being made, but not once the veto round has started.
Can we vote on games that aren't on Steam, or that only some of us own?
Yes. Anyone can search for a game and add it to the session, including free-to-play titles and games that are not on Steam at all. Steamr flags who does not own it and what it currently costs in their local currency, so you can decide whether it is worth anyone buying.
Can Steamr split us into teams after the vote?
Yes. Once there is a winner, the host can split everyone into teams. Either draw them at random, or run a captains' draft where the captains take turns picking players.
Can I invite people I haven't picked from my friends list?
Yes, open a room instead. You get a link you can post in your group chat, anyone who clicks it asks to join, and you approve them. The shared library is then worked out from whoever is actually in the room when you start.
Where do I find my Steam ID or profile URL?
If you're signed in to Steam in your browser, go to steamcommunity.com/my and copy whatever's in the address bar. In the Steam app, click your name next to Community at the top, then grab the link from your profile page. Either format works: the one with your custom name in it (steamcommunity.com/id/yourname) or the one with your 17-digit Steam ID in it (steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656...). You can paste the bare Steam ID on its own if that's all you have.
What kind of games does Steamr help pick?
Multiplayer and co-op, so things you can play together. Single-player-only games get filtered out automatically, so nobody ends up voting for something the rest of you cannot join.
Why does Steamr use these two voting systems?
I built it with a few different voting systems taken from electoral theory, then watched what happened across more than 350 sessions and over 2,000 votes. Two of them worked. Diplomatic, which is positional voting, became the default. Variety, which is weighted voting, stuck around for groups who kept replaying the same thing. Vetoes stayed because they were what stopped a group falling out over one game.
Is Steamr affiliated with Steam or Valve?
No. It is an independent tool I built. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Valve. It reads the public game libraries you choose to share using Steam's official Web API.