Steam game approvals are slower: 12 business days and what Valve is changing

Releasing a game on Steam takes longer right now. On 3 November Valve wrote that a build review normally takes 3 to 5 business days, but that it is "running a little behind" and taking up to 12. On social media, developers report waits of two to three weeks, and a few games have launched later than planned because of it.

What Valve itself says #

The announcement is called Updates to the Pre-Release Review Process and was posted in the Steamworks group. Valve has seen "a significant increase in submissions for store page and build review in recent months". Most of the delay, it says, comes from games that need a second look: "Much of that delay is due to having to re-review games, which isn't great for you or for us."

The post doesn't name AI as a cause. It does say, in the list of things reviewers check, that they compare the game's content with what you filled in on the content survey, "such as mature content and AI usage".

New items on the release checklist #

Valve wants fewer second rounds, so the release checklist in Steamworks has new required items:

• At least 5 minutes of play through Steam. You have to press the green Play button rather than launching your executable directly. Valve says it gets builds that have never been started through Steam, which leads to broken launch options or missing depots. Playtime from any user counts, as long as it's from the last 7 days or since your last build upload.
• Declare redistributables. Tell Steam which packages it should install (DirectX, Visual C++, .NET and so on), or confirm that your game needs none.
• Check achievements. Steamworks now flags missing names, missing icons and duplicate names.
• Test Steam Cloud. If your store page lists Cloud as a feature, someone in your partner group has to actually write a save to the cloud. Steamworks also warns you if cloud sync is still in developer mode.
• Five screenshots marked as gameplay. You can now upload menus, concept art and cinematics too, as long as you put them in the right category. You still need at least five real gameplay screenshots, and marketing copy in screenshots is still not allowed.

When you submit, Steamworks also shows reminders based on what your store page promises. If you list multiple languages, it asks whether they're really in the build. If multiplayer can only be tested with special accounts, there's a field for leaving login details for the reviewers.

Why this is happening now #

Valve doesn't name a cause, but the numbers point somewhere. A Reddit user (u/ploz) analysed the public store data of roughly 63,600 games released since January 2024, and Dexerto covered the results. Of the new games released in October 2026, 49.9% carried an AI disclosure. In October 2025 that was 26.4%, and in January 2024 it was 1.7%.

Sulka Haro did a separate count and got 1,982 of the 3,897 new games in October. According to Kotaku, more games had come out in 2026 by mid-October than in all of 2025.

Two caveats. Developers fill in the disclosure themselves, and since January 2026 it covers AI content that players see or hear, not tools used during development. So one checkbox can mean a fully generated game, or a single translated string or one image on the store page. According to Dexerto, 63% of disclosures are about artwork. The link between AI games and the queue is one that journalists and developers are drawing themselves; Valve hasn't said it. What is certain is that far more games are coming in, and every rejected build has to go through the queue a second time.

What it means for developers #

Kotaku listed several cases. Ashen Legacy was submitted on 15 October, the first attempt was rejected, and approval came on 1 November, five days before the planned launch. Food Devils, from a nine-person studio in Italy, was submitted on 12 October. Two weeks later Valve came back with a question about sexual content, and the studio was still waiting when the article came out.

Valve's own documentation already said to plan for at least 7 business days for a build review, and that's now too tight. What I'd do if you have a release coming up:

1. Submit much earlier. Count on 12 business days, plus a second round if something goes wrong. That easily adds up to a month.
2. Go through the checklist before you submit. Play for five minutes via the Play button, write a cloud save, check your achievements. These are small things, but every rejection costs you another spot in the queue.
3. Don't promise more on your store page than the build delivers. Valve tests whether every promised feature and language works. A co-op mode the reviewer can't get running means a rejection.
4. Fill in the content survey honestly. Reviewers compare it with the game. Valve said earlier that it doesn't want to be "gatekeepers telling developers which tools they should or shouldn't use". So using AI isn't the problem, but a survey that doesn't match the game is a reason to reject it.

And for players #

Not much changes for players, except that release dates are less certain. If an indie game slips by a few days, Valve may be the reason, not the developer. The new screenshot categories are a win, though: store pages will show a label on each image, so you know whether you're looking at gameplay or concept art.

Valve says more improvements are coming, but gives no date. The updated documentation with the full checklist is still marked "coming soon".

Sources #

• Valve: Updates to the Pre-Release Review Process (3 November 2026)
• Steamworks documentation: Review Process
• Game Developer: Valve warns of slower Steam approvals, possibly due to AI game surge
• Kotaku: Devs Are Blaming A Flood Of AI Slop On Steam For Delaying Their Games
• Dexerto: Almost half of all new Steam games use AI now
• Sulka Haro: Half of new Steam games now disclose AI