How to play Steam games offline

If you are a Steam gamer and enjoy playing on this gaming platform, one of the greatest possibilities it provides you is to keep enjoying playing games when you go offline. Although Steam was first pictured as a place to update your games, it turns out that this cloud-working system developed into a very good gaming platform with many users and provides many options as well. If you have ever asked yourself how to play Steam games offline, here are some tips and information we gathered for you.

Steam and offline mode

You have probably experienced at least once the connection lost while playing games on Steam. Well, Steam made it possible for its users to play games while they are offline. However, you must know that the game platform cannot work in offline mode as well as it works when you have established an internet connection.

So, when you go offline, you can keep playing Steam games but only if they are updated and single-player or local multiplayer. To activate the offline mode on Steam, you have to be connected to the internet. The reason for this is that Steam needs to verify the account you are using.

Set up

To activate the offline mode, you need to head to the Steam official page. Depending on the device you own, the Settings can be a bit different. If you have a Mac, then open Steam and click on the Account option. For PC owners, choose the Steam menu from the top toolbar.

The next step is to find and click on the Go offline option. When you click on it, Steam is going to lead you on to the restart in the offline mode.

All the games that were completely updated at the time of going offline will be available to play while you are off the grid. To avoid the possibility of not being able to play your favorite game, check for updates before you go offline. Steam itself will not do it, so this means you can play games offline after they are updated and before you have gone to this model.

In offline mode

If you are in offline mode, your games will not receive any important updates. It's a good choice to go online from time to time, so you can get the updates and this way playing in offline mode can be as good as you were expecting to be.

To save data in offline mode, you should be careful about the way Steam is closing before you turn off your computer. Make sure to do it manually, because if leaving the Steam is forced, your data will be lost. Also, check if there is any program on your computer that can cause losing the data in offline mode or installation files that it is using.

Games

There are some games on Steam that have special requirements. Some cannot be played in offline mode at all, and they require an active internet connection. Others require you to start playing them while you have established an internet connection. This requirement is called the initial game start-up.

It can also happen that the status of your game says that the game is one hundred percent ready to play, but you are receiving a note that the game cannot be played in offline mode. This means that the game needs an update, or the Steam client does.

Regarding your network settings, your firewall can stop Steam client updates or game updates. On Steam’s official site, you can find all the details about network settings requirements, and if it doesn’t help, you can contact support.