Steam Promo Watch - track free game giveaways on Steam.

Steam Promo Watch is a lightweight Chrome / Edge extension that watches Steam for Free to Keep promotions and notifies you when something new appears.

Early alpha: the extension is still in active development. Behavior may change, some features may be incomplete, and bugs are still expected.

Release notes are tracked in CHANGELOG.md.

What it is

Steam Promo Watch helps you catch Steam games that become free to keep for a limited time.

It works locally in your browser:

• no server
• no Steam login
• no account connection

Why use it

Use it if you want a simple way to keep an eye on Steam giveaways without manually checking the store all the time.

It is built for people who want:

• automatic checks in the background
• browser notifications when a new promotion appears
• a small popup with recent results and status
• Steam user review badges directly on promotion cards
• an ignore list with restore support for promotions you do not want to see right now
• simple settings without extra complexity

How it works

The extension periodically checks Steam for Free to Keep promotions.

When it finds a new one, it can:

• show a browser notification
• update the extension badge
• save a short local history so you can see recent detections
• include Steam review summary details when review data is available

You can also open the popup at any time to:

• see the latest promotions
• see Steam review badges on supported entries
• check when the last scan happened
• see when the next scan is planned
• start a manual check with Check now
• open the latest GitHub release from Check for updates

What it tracks

This extension intentionally tracks only Free to Keep promotions on Steam website.

It does not currently track temporary free play events such as Free Weekend or Play for Free.

How to install in Chrome

1. Open the repository's Releases page on GitHub.
2. Download the asset steam-promo-watch-<version>.zip.
3. Extract the archive to a local folder.
4. Open chrome://extensions/.
5. Turn on Developer mode.
6. Click Load unpacked.
7. Select the extracted steam-promo-watch folder.

Do not use GitHub's auto-generated Source code (zip) archive for installation. That archive is a repository snapshot and may include development files that are not part of the release package.

For Microsoft Edge, use the same steps on edge://extensions/.

How to update extension

1. Open the repository's Releases page on GitHub.
2. Download the new asset steam-promo-watch-<version>.zip.
3. Extract the new archive.
4. If you want to keep the same extension entry in the browser, replace the contents of the folder you used for the previous version with the newly extracted files.
5. Open chrome://extensions/ or edge://extensions/.
6. Find Steam Promo Watch.
7. Click Reload.

If you extracted the new version into a different folder instead of replacing the old one, remove the currently loaded unpacked extension first, then load the new folder with Load unpacked.

How to use it

1. Click the extension icon in the browser toolbar.
2. Open Settings if you want to change the check interval, notifications, badge, quiet hours, or restore ignored promotions.
3. Use Check now when you want an immediate scan.
4. Use Ignore on a promotion card when you want to hide that title until you restore it later from Settings.
5. Use Check for updates in the popup when you want to jump straight to the latest release on GitHub.
6. Keep the browser installed and enabled so scheduled checks can continue.

It is recommended to pin Steam Promo Watch to your browser's toolbar so you don't miss any free games it finds.

Limitations

• The extension is still in alpha.
• Steam can change store pages or data sources, which may require updates.
• No localization yet.
• No settings import/export yet.

Technical details

Technical notes for developers and advanced troubleshooting were moved to TECHNICAL.md.