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Five games are free to play on Steam until September 14 at 10am PT / 1pm ET: Borderlands 4, Mordhau, Surviving Mars: Relaunched, F1 25 2026 Season Edition and Crime Boss: Rockay City. You do not have to claim them, you do not get to keep them, and that difference is the reason this promotion confuses people every single month.
Searches for “steam free weekend games september” rose +3,950% in the United States over the seven days to 11 September 2026, which is the highest rising free-games query on Google Trends in that window. Almost all of the traffic is people trying to work out one thing: whether they need to click something before the weekend ends.
What is actually free this weekend
| Game | Current Steam price | Free until |
|---|---|---|
| Borderlands 4 | $34.99 (50% off $69.99) | Sep 14, 10am PT |
| Mordhau | $5.99 (80% off $29.99) | Sep 14, 10am PT |
| Surviving Mars: Relaunched | $19.99 | Sep 14, 10am PT |
| F1 25 | $34.99 | Sep 14, 10am PT |
| Crime Boss: Rockay City | $1.99 | Sep 14, 10am PT |
Prices were read from the Steam storefront at the time of writing and change when a sale ends. The free-weekend window itself is fixed.
Free Weekend and Free to Keep are two different Steam programs
Valve runs both, and they are listed separately in its own developer documentation — “Free Weekends” and “Free to Keep (100% Discount)” are distinct promotional tools with distinct rules.
| Free Weekend | Free to Keep | |
|---|---|---|
| Do you click to claim? | No | Yes |
| Do you keep it afterwards? | No | Yes, permanently |
| What the deadline is for | Playing | Claiming |
| Does progress carry over if you buy? | Yes | n/a |
The practical consequence: on a Free to Keep promotion, adding the game to your library in ten seconds is the whole job and you can play it in five years. On a Free Weekend, there is nothing to claim — the deadline is on the hours you actually spend, which is a much more expensive kind of deadline.
The honest caveat: this weekend’s list is not for this audience
Four of the five are big-publisher titles, and the fifth is a 2023 heist game. If you came here from an indie site, the free weekend is not where the interesting Steam activity is this week. The genuinely notable releases are elsewhere: The Crust shipped its 1.0 with 3,791 reviews, Welcome to Elderfield entered the Steam 250 seven-day chart at #7, and Touhou New Classic landed at #2.
What a free weekend is genuinely good for is the thing a refund cannot do: testing whether a large multiplayer game has players on your continent at the hours you actually play. Two hours inside Steam’s refund window is not long enough to answer that. Four days is.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to claim Steam free weekend games?
No. Free weekend games simply become playable from your Steam library during the promotion. There is no claim button, and nothing is added to your account permanently.
Do I keep my progress if I buy the game later?
Yes. Free weekend play uses the full version of the game, so saves and achievements earned during the weekend remain when you purchase it.
When does the September 2026 Steam free weekend end?
September 14, 2026 at 10am Pacific Time, which is 1pm Eastern Time.
What is the difference between a Steam free weekend and a free to keep giveaway?
A free to keep giveaway must be claimed during its window and is then yours permanently. A free weekend requires no claim but access ends when the promotion closes.
Are free weekend games discounted too?
Usually. Borderlands 4 is 50 percent off and Mordhau is 80 percent off during this promotion, though discounts are set per title and are not guaranteed.
Sources and citation
- Steamworks documentation listing Free Weekends and Free to Keep as separate promotional programs
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/discounts - Steam storefront pricing, read at the time of writing via the Steam store API
https://store.steampowered.com/ - Game Rant, Steam Officially Makes 5 Games 100% Free Until September 14
https://gamerant.com/steam-free-weekend-games-5-september-14-2026/ - Google Trends, United States, rising queries, seven days to 11 September 2026
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore
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