Steam is an online gaming marketplace that hosts games from every major gaming publisher. Steam has also been known to host games from various small-scale indie publishers as well. A user’s Steam profile works in a slightly different manner from what other online gaming platforms function. The essential difference is that while other platforms require one to have a unique username, Steam allows one to have any username they wish to have, even if it has been taken by another player. While this feature might be helpful in allowing a player to choose whatever display name he/she wishes to have, it becomes slightly problematic when the name is searched to discover a player. In such cases, what comes in handy, is the Steam ID which every player is allocated uniquely.
What is Steam?
Steam initially started as a game publishing company of its own. They later grew into this burgeoning gaming market place which every gamer refers to now. The parent company for Steam is Valve. Valve released steam as its storefront and Steam has continued to retain its position as the biggest online gaming marketplace with the finest selection of games. For the longest time, no other company could even remotely challenge steam in owning a share of the online gaming market space. However, newer platforms have emerged like Epic Games, Electronic Arts, EA sports’ very own storefront Origin, Ubisoft’s storefront Ubisoft Connect. Steam has still continued to reign supreme in this online gaming space. While the other companies tried their best to garner their position by making their games exclusive to the market space, they still could not even come close to what Steam had to offer. It must be mentioned here that Steam was the first of its kind to open a gaming marketplace. Besides providing amazing discounts on almost every game from a certain publisher, Steam is also known for hosting huge sales in the gaming community where they sell off games at stunning prices. Every single game bought gets stored in the gaming library so that the gamers can maintain a gaming log of sorts.
Steam runs hardware surveys every year which evaluate the kind of graphics card one owns, how much RAM a user is functioning upon or the kind of processor one has and if that is good enough. This hardware survey is a great way to keep track of all kinds of gaming equipment updates a gamer could need. All the games sold on Steam are available to the consumers through every kind of payment mode.
What is a Steam ID?
A Steam ID may be considered as an array or combination of seventeen digits, which helps in identifying a single player on the Steam platform. This means that every player on Steam is allocated a Steam ID which is unique to them. This is usually a combination of seventeen digits which helps identify every user in the game. This ID is also used by third-party tools or apps. The Steam ID is also used to connect other players to an individual account. Through a Steam ID then, any buyer could be uniquely recognized despite the commotion and confusion that could be caused by similar usernames.
How do I find my Steam ID?
Steam ID does not exactly make itself visible immediately, but finding it out isn’t that difficult either. In order to find one’s Steam ID, the following steps could be observed:
- The Steam App is to be opened on the PC or Mac and the user needs to sign in.
- The user’s profile needs to be opened. For this, the user may click on his/her profile name at the top of the screen.
- Ideally, there should be an URL link in the drop-down menu that opens right below the profile button. The seventeen-digit array of numbers within that URL link is the gamer’s Steam ID.
However, if this method does not work and for some reason, the user is unable to retrieve his/her Steam ID from the URL link, the following steps can also be observed:
- The ‘Steam’ button at the top of the window is to be clicked. If there is no such button, the Menu Bar is to be selected from the top of the window, and then ‘settings’ need to be clicked. The same procedure is to be followed if the user is on a Mac, only ‘preferences’ need to be selected in place of ‘settings’.
- The ‘Interface’ option is to be selected from the Menu Bar that drops down. This could be found on the left of the screen.
- An empty box would appear on the screen. ‘Display Steam URL address bar when available’ would be written next to that box. The box needs to be checked out.
- In order to save the display settings, make sure that the ‘okay’ button is clicked before escaping the dialog box.
- If the URL was not visible earlier, it should be by now. The array of numbers by the end of the URL link is then the user’s Steam ID.
One may also use third-party apps or online Steam ID finders if they wish to avoid the complex 00procedure of having to sign in to the PC and log in to their Steam account. These finders are easily available online and save one the hassle of going through the long-drawn process of finding the ID on their PC.
Conclusion:
The confusion regarding where to find Steam ID could be fairly solved by meticulously following the steps discussed. The ID could then be further used to link other buyers and other apps to the Steam user account. In every way, knowing where to find the Steam ID is imperative for a gamer. If the person wishes to avoid the lengthy process, he/she could also avail online software to find their Steam IDs for them. For the online gaming community then, having a Steam account and their subsequent Steam ID could be considered as a symbol of their arrival in the community.
