How to Uninstall Steam Games

Steam is Valve’s game distribution platform and represents the majority of PC games released since 2003. Odds are you probably have too many games and need to know how to delete Steam games to free up space. The great thing about the platform is that you don’t need to store all those games on your computer’s hard drive.

Steam is a cloud-based service, so uninstalling doesn’t delete games from your account. Games you purchase (or are gifted) on Steam remain attached to your account for life, so you can choose which ones to install on your device at any given time. If you’re looking to free up storage space, here’s how to uninstall Steam games you don’t play.

Sign Into Steam

Steam Login Screen — The Steam login screen is where it all starts.

The first step to uninstalling a Steam game is to sign into Steam from the Steam app installed on your computer. There's probably an icon on your desktop, but if not, you can find the Steam app where you've installed the rest of your apps.

If you have trouble signing in, click I CAN’T SIGN IN to recovery your login information.

Go to Your Steam Library

Steam Main Menu — The Steam library holds everything you own.

Now that you’re logged in, navigate to your Steam Library. This is done by clicking “LIBRARY” at the top of the screen.

This will bring up your entire Steam library. Files are sorted by Games, Software, VR, and Music.

If you prefer to only see games, hover your cursor over LIBRARY to bring up a dropdown menu. Select GAMES.

If you prefer to only see installed Steam programs, hover your cursor over LIBRARY and select INSTALLED.

Before uninstalling any games, we're going to ensure we backup any saved progress.

Backup Your Saved Game Data

Steam Game Progress Cloud Saves — The cloud icon means the game saves your progress online, not your own computer.

Depending on the game, your progress may or may not be automatically saved. One way to tell is by looking for the cloud icon in the Steam menu.

If there is a cloud icon next to the game, progress is saved on the Steam cloud. If not, progress is either saved locally or through the game developer's cloud.

If progress is saved to the cloud, it will be restored when you reinstall the game. If not, find local game data in one of these locations:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Documents

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Documents\My Games

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\Saved Games

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Local

C:\Users\YOUR USER NAME HERE\AppData\Roaming

Before uninstalling your game, be sure to copy these files and save them somewhere else on your computer.

Choose Game to Uninstall

Steam Game Library — An inside view of a Steam library.

When browsing through your Steam library, games/apps that are installed on your computer hard drive are written in white text and say “Ready to Play” as the status. Games that are attached to your Steam account but not installed on your hard drive are written in gray text and say “Not installed” as the status.

Uninstall Steam Games — How to delete Steam games.

On PC, Right click the game you wish to uninstall. For this example, we’re going to uninstall TransOcean 2: Rivals.

Select Uninstall… from the dropdown menu.

This will trigger a popup window that states “This will delete all TransOcean 2: Rivals game content from this computer. The game will remain in your Games Library, but to play it in the future, you’ll have to first re-download its content.”

Click DELETE.

You’ll see a progress window as the game is uninstalled. Once the uninstall is complete, the window will disappear, and your game will now be grayed out and state “Not installed” as the status.