If your demo is in October’s Fest, book a chat with our account management team.
Or email [email protected] to join the collection.
Steam Next Fest returns from 19 to 26 October 2026, and our Steam Next Fest Amplification is open to developers in the Next Fest.
Our last Next Fest Amplification generated 14.1 million video views, and 355 articles from press outlets with 123.6 million monthly visitors. Across all games in the campaign, the average CPM was $1.28.
Four games from our June Amplification made Steam’s top 50 most-played demos:
- ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs – tinyBuild Games
- DragonSword : Awakening – Hound13
- Bus Simulator 27 – Astragon Entertainment
- Last Pirates: Die Together – RetroStyle Games
With thousands of demos competing for attention in the same week, the games that stand out are the ones influencers and press have already noticed. Our Steam Next Fest Amplification makes sure yours is one of them. We feature participating demos in a collection on Keymailer, our portal for 60,000+ vetted influencers, and Game.Press, our portal for 2,600 outlets, journalists and podcasters, and promote it before and throughout the Fest.
Here’s what June delivered, what each tier costs, and how that compares on a cost-per-view basis.
Results from Our Last Next Fest Amplification, June 2026
Across the June Next Fest collection:
- 14.1M views from creator and influencer videos
- 355 press articles, from outlets with a combined 123.6 million monthly visitors
Press coverage wasn’t focused on big titles only: 75% of games in the collection were covered by at least one press outlet.
Two games that caught our eye in June:
- A fast paced action adventure from a studio: 749k influencer views and 20 press articles
- A 2D pixel art simulator from a solo developer: 153k influencer views and 12 press articles
Three Fests, Each Over 10 Million Views
June wasn’t a one-off. Every Steam Next Fest Amplification we’ve run in the past 12 months has generated more than 10 million views, 42.4 million views across three Fests.
Pricing and CPM
There are three options:
- $99 Standard
- $249 Promoted
- $499 Featured
Across all games in the campaign, from Standard to Featured tier, the average CPM was $1.28. CPM stands for cost per mille, or cost per thousand views, a term borrowed from display advertising. Press articles and outlet reach can’t be included in the calculation, but their inclusion effectively reduces the CPM further.
For context, our analysis of every organic campaign promoted through Keymailer from January to August 2026 found an average CPM of $1.75. That compares with the $5 CPM some sponsored short-form platforms typically recommend. You can read the full breakdown in What’s the CPM for Organic Gaming Content? Even the Standard tier ($99) sits under that $5 mark, and that’s before any press coverage is counted.
Which tier fits depends on what you want from the Fest and where it sits in your launch plan. That’s a conversation our account management team has with developers every Next Fest, so if you’re weighing it up, book a call or email [email protected] and the team will talk you through the options.
What the Amplification Includes
The collection is promoted across our Keymailer and Game.Press network before and during the Fest through:
- Collection on Keymailer and Game.Press for the Fest window
- Early visibility before day one, so influencers and press can plan coverage
- Newsletter distribution to influencer and press audiences
- Social promotion across our multi-language channels
- A Discover page ad linking to the collection
- Live coverage monitoring and structured reporting once the Fest wraps
The Promoted and Featured tiers give your game a more prominent position within the collection.
Steam Next Fest October 2026: Key Dates
- Valve’s Press Preview opens: Thursday 8 October, 10am PDT
- Next Fest runs: Monday 19 October to Monday 26 October, 10am PDT
Join the October Next Fest Amplification
If your demo is in Steam Next Fest this October, book a call with our account management team or email [email protected]. We’ll confirm your tier, assets and activation codes, and get your game into the collection ahead of the Fest.