Steam video specs and requirements
Valve's PC game store, where the trailer at the top of your store page is the first thing players see.
What it is
Steam is the largest store for PC games. Every store page opens with a media carousel, and the first trailer in it plays automatically when someone lands on the page.
For many players that trailer is the whole pitch: they decide within a few seconds whether to scroll down, wishlist, or leave.
What it expects from a video
- Upload trailers through Steamworks. Steam re-encodes everything you upload, so give it a high-bitrate source rather than a file that is already heavily compressed.
- Trailers should show what the product actually looks like. Valve asks that store media reflect the real experience, not only cinematics or concept art.
- The first trailer autoplays muted, so the opening seconds need to make sense without sound.
Recordcake presets
Steam Trailer 1080p
- Size
- 1920×1080 (16:9)
- Frame rate
- 60 fps
- Video
- MP4 · H.264 · 15 Mb/s
- Audio
- AAC · 256 kb/s
- Limits
- —
Steam Trailer 4K
Uses HEVC to keep the file size manageable at 3840×2160.
- Size
- 3840×2160 (16:9)
- Frame rate
- 60 fps
- Video
- MP4 · HEVC · 50 Mb/s
- Audio
- AAC · 256 kb/s
- Limits
- —
Tips for product demos
- Show the product working in the first five seconds. Save the logo for the end.
- Export the 1080p version for the store page and the 4K version if you have a 4K master; Steam serves each viewer the size that suits them.
- Keep on-screen text large. A lot of people watch the carousel at a small size before they click to expand it.
Official specs
Platforms change their rules from time to time. If a limit matters, check the official page before you upload.
Screen recordings, piece of cake.
Record the demo once. Let Recordcake handle the formats.
Coming soon to the Mac App Store