Steam has picked up a new kind of time sink, and it does not cost a cent. A parody site called Steam Sale Simulator copies the familiar shopping loop so closely that it starts to feel like the real thing, only without the bill.
The joke lands because the habit already exists. Mashable recently wrote about so-called dopamine sites in Korea, including FoodNeverComes, which gives users the rush of ordering food without actually buying anything. Steam Sale Simulator takes that same idea and points it at the one place many PC players already visit to hoard discounts, points, and digital clutter.
Developer Mike Wing has stuffed the site with small details that mimic Valve’s store. You can throw fake games into a cart, load up a fake wallet, click through a fake purchase flow, and even receive random gifts from a fake Gabe Newell. The site also has a fake community market, where the most absurd part may be how normal it all starts to feel.
After about ten minutes on the site, the tally reached 49 games, Steam level 51, and a fake savings total of $977.73. That is a very funny number, but it also says a lot about how Steam shopping already works as a hobby of its own. The backlog grows, the sale timer keeps ticking, and the urge to grab one more cheap game never really goes away.
Top Steam games by revenue for June 23-30
Steam’s weekly revenue chart still had a few familiar names near the top. Meccha Chameleon took No. 1 after passing 15 million copies sold, while Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 followed at No. 2 and No. 3. Cyberpunk 2077 held No. 4 thanks to a 75% discount, PUBG: Battlegrounds sat at No. 5, and Dead by Daylight, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Steam Deck, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 rounded out the top 10.
Two discount stories stood out in that list. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth hit a new concurrent player peak of 130,954 after dropping to its lowest-ever 90% discount, and Modern Warfare 2 also climbed after matching that same price cut. Dota 2’s rise was easier to explain too, since Valve posted a fresh event for the game in late June on Steam’s news page.
The review of the week came from Feed the Pit, where one player summed it up by joking that it is fine to shove people into an eldritch flesh pit after 58 stabs, especially if a giant tree has already chased you around.
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