Steam Overhauls its Store Tags with New Additions, NSFW Removals, and Major Category Changes

Steam recently rolled out one of its larger updates to the platform’s tagging system, introducing a mix of new tags, removals, and category changes designed to improve how games are discovered and recommended. Valve confirmed that the update includes 17 new tags, 28 removed tags, and several renamed or merged categories

If you spend a lot of time browsing Steam, you already know how important tags are to the overall experience. They shape recommendation pages, category hubs, store searches, and even special sale sections. “Tags help connect players to the games that match their interests, whether that be a genre, mechanic, visual style, theme, or type of content,” Valve said. 

Steam clarified that most of these tags are user-defined rather than fully controlled by developers. 

Players with unlimited accounts can apply tags to games, while developers and moderators can also contribute. Over time, community input often changes how a game is categorized, which means some titles eventually end up associated with tags that may not fully reflect the actual experience.

The company acknowledged that some tags have become overly broad, inconsistent, or simply unnecessary over the years. In some cases, players have applied labels that are more subjective than descriptive, while others overlap too closely with existing categories. Steam now appears focused on making tags more practical and easier to understand.

Among the newly added tags is “Bullet Heaven,” which Steam describes as the opposite of the classic “Bullet Hell” style. Instead of focusing on difficult dodging mechanics, these games are built around automatic attacks, upgrades, and surviving large enemy hordes. The genre has grown significantly in popularity over the last few years, especially following the success of games centered around progression-heavy survival mechanics.

Another new category is “Desktop Companion,” which applies to games and applications designed to stay active on part of your screen while you multitask. These experiences help keep you company while you work, browse, or do something else on your computer. Steam’s addition of the tag reflects the platform's gradual expansion.

Steam also introduced the “Organizing” tag, which covers games that focus on tidying, unpacking, decluttering, and arranging items in virtual spaces. These kinds of relaxing games have quietly built a large audience recently, especially among players seeking slower-paced, more calming experiences rather than competitive or action-heavy gameplay.

Several of the new additions focus on highly specific genres and themes. Steam added “Wuxia,” which refers to martial-arts fantasy adventures inspired by historical Chinese storytelling, and “Xianxia,” which centers on cultivating supernatural powers and spiritual progression. Another new tag, “Falling Block,” applies to games based on arranging and rotating descending blocks.

The company also added an “Espionage” tag for games involving spying, stealth operations, and gathering secret information.

Other additions include “Samurai,” “Zoo,” “Wolves,” “Capybaras,” and broader animal-related categories. Steam even described capybaras as the “largest and most adorable rodent species,” showing that some of the platform’s community-driven personality remains present despite the broader cleanup effort.

Additional tags include “Cult,” “Poker,” and “Language Learning,” reflecting how Steam now hosts a much wider variety of software and experiences than it did years ago. Valve explained that new tags are generally added when enough games exist within a category to make discovery useful and when the tag helps establish connections.

While the new tags are drawing attention, much of the discussion surrounding the update has focused on the tags Steam removed. Valve said many of the older tags no longer serve a meaningful purpose or overlap too much with more specific tags already available on the platform.

The most controversial change involves removing both the “NSFW” and “Mature” tags. Steam said those labels overlap heavily with more direct tags such as “Gore,” “Violent,” and “Sexual Content.” Rather than relying on broad umbrella terms, Valve appears to prefer tags that clearly explain what type of content a game actually contains.

That decision has already sparked discussion among Steam users, especially given the platform's past controversies over adult content.

Some players see the removal of NSFW-related tags as a possible sign that Valve wants to distance itself from adult games or make those titles less visible on the storefront. Steam did not suggest that any broader policy changes are coming, but the removal of both tags at the same time has naturally raised concerns among parts of the community.

Valve also removed several tags that it considers too subjective to function properly in a recommendation system. Categories such as “Masterpiece” and “Well-Written” are being retired because they depend almost entirely on personal opinion. Steam explained that tags work best when they describe gameplay mechanics, themes, and content.

That shift reflects a larger effort to remove emotionally driven or inconsistent labels from the storefront. One player’s favorite game may be another player’s disappointment, which makes broad praise-based tags difficult to apply fairly across thousands of titles. Steam appears to want reviews and user scores to handle those opinions, rather than the tagging system itself.

Several removed tags are also tied to specific intellectual properties or external brands. Valve said community-driven tagging is not ideal for organizing franchise-related content, since publishers already create official franchise pages that collect games under a single brand umbrella. As a result, tags such as “Warhammer 40K,” “Dungeons & Dragons,” “Games Workshop,” and “LEGO” are all being removed.

Other deleted tags include “Kickstarter,” “Ambient,” “Cult Classic,” “Documentary,” “Movie,” “Narration,” “Drama,” “Web Publishing,” and “Foreign.” Steam believes many of these either overlap with stronger categories or fail to create useful discovery paths for players searching the storefront.

One removal that may disappoint some users is the elimination of “GameMaker” and “RPG Maker” as tags. 

Certain players like knowing what engine a game was built with before deciding whether to try it, especially because some engines have developed reputations tied to particular styles or levels of quality. Steam, however, appears to view engine-related labels as less useful within the broader recommendation ecosystem.

The update also includes several renamed and merged categories aimed at reducing confusion. “Clicker” has been renamed to “Incremental” to better reflect games centered around progression and constantly increasing numbers. “Conversation” has been changed to “Dialogue-Heavy” for improved clarity and consistency with other tags across the platform.

One of the more unusual changes involves the old “Pool” tag. Valve explained that users frequently applied it to games featuring swimming pools rather than cue sports, creating confusion in the storefront. To solve the issue, Steam officially renamed the category to “Billiards.”

Overall, Steam’s latest update shows that Valve is still working to improve how its storefront handles discovery, recommendations, and categorization. Clearly, the platform is trying to reduce overlap, cut down on confusing labels, and make the tagging system more useful as Steam's library continues to grow. 

Some of the changes, such as the removal of NSFW-related tags and creator-tool categories, are likely to remain a source of disagreement among users. That said, Valve appears intent on creating a cleaner, more functional system that better reflects how people browse and discover games today.