Steam Family Sharing 2026: How Steam Families Works, the 6-Member Limit, Cooldowns and Rules

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How Steam Family Sharing works in 2026

Steam Families is Valve's collection of family features. In its launch post of 11 September 2024 Valve says it "replaces both Steam Family Sharing and Steam Family View". There is no separate sharing switch any more. You create or join a family, and from that moment your shareable games are visible to the other members and theirs are visible to you.

The rules below come from Valve's Steam Families User Guide & FAQ. The FAQ is on version 7, last edited on 19 September 2024, and it was still the current version on 7 November 2026.

• A family library appears in your games list. It is a subsection of your library. Choose "Group By Library" in the dropdown above the game list to see it as a separate block.
• Ownership does not move. The buyer keeps the game. New purchases still go into the buyer's own collection.
• Progress is personal. Each member gets their own saves, their own Steam achievements and their own Workshop access in a shared game. Achievements are tied to the individual account; how saves work depends on the game.
• Everything shareable is shared. Valve's launch FAQ says that by joining a family "all games are automatically shared". An adult cannot hide a single game from another adult. Only children can be restricted, through parental controls.
• Shared DLC follows the owner. When you launch a family member's game, you get the DLC that member owns and that the publisher marked as shareable.
• Offline play works. Games from the family library can be played offline if the game supports Family Sharing.

Steam family sharing limit: how many members, adults and children

A Steam Family can contain up to 6 members. Valve's launch post phrases it as "create a Steam Family and then invite up to 5 family members", so the account that creates the family counts toward the six. Valve's FAQ describes the intended group as "a household of up to 6 close family members".

There is no separate quota for adults and children. Valve's documents only set the total of six, so any mix of the two roles is allowed. In practice a family needs at least one adult, because only adults can send invites, remove members and set parental controls.

Valve also reserves the right to change these numbers. The launch FAQ says it may adjust "the requirements for participating in a Steam Family or the number of members over time". As of 7 November 2026 the limit is still six.

Steam family cooldown: leaving, being removed and rejoining

The cooldowns are the rule people trip over most. Valve's FAQ sets two separate one-year timers, and both can apply at once.

1. The member cooldown. Adults can leave at any time, but "they will need to wait 1 year from when they joined the previous family to create or join a new family." The clock starts when you joined, not when you left. Someone who joined 14 months ago and leaves today can join a new family right away.
2. The slot cooldown. "Each Steam Family slot has a cooldown of one year before a new member can occupy that slot." A seat that someone vacated, by leaving or by being removed, cannot be given to a new account for a year.

Valve states both timers as "1 year" and "one year". It does not give them as a number of days, so we do not convert them. When you try to join a family, Steam shows how much time is left on your cooldown.

The rejoin exception is narrow. It only covers the most recent family you were in, and only while that family has a free slot. Valve's FAQ answers the question "Do I have to wait a year to rejoin?" with a plain "No" under those conditions.

Valve's troubleshooting section names three reasons you cannot join a family: the household check, your own cooldown from a previous family, and slots of the target family that are still in cooldown. Plan the members carefully before you invite anyone. A single test invite to the wrong account can block a slot for a year.

Which Steam games can't be shared

Family Sharing is on by default. Valve's Steamworks documentation for Steam Families says "By default Family Sharing is enabled on all games and DLC on Steam." Developers can opt out at any time, and some content is excluded for technical reasons. The Support FAQ lists what cannot be shared between accounts.

The carry-over matters. Valve wrote that "all developer settings for the previous Steam Family Sharing feature are being brought forward". A game that could be shared in 2023 can still be shared now, unless the developer opted out later. To check a game before you buy it, look for the Family Sharing feature on its store page, or use the Steam Store search with the Family Sharing filter that Valve links in its launch post.

DLC has its own rule. You get only the owner's DLC that the publisher marked as shareable. DLC with one-time items or currency is a special case: the Steamworks documentation names it as an example where a game needs to know that the player is using a shared copy.

Steam accounts with the games already on them

When a game cannot be shared, it has to be on the account itself, and each listing names the games it holds.

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Can two family members play the same game at the same time?

Only if the family owns two copies. The limit is one player per owned copy, not one player per library. Valve's FAQ uses a worked example: in a family of four where you own Portal 2 and Half-Life, one member can play Portal 2 while another plays Half-Life. If two members want Portal 2 at once, someone has to buy a second copy. After that, any two members can play it together.

When the copy you want is busy, Steam looks for another one. If a different member owns the game with identical DLC, Steam launches that copy instead. If the only free copy has different DLC, Steam asks whether you want to switch, with Valve's warning that your saves "may or may not work" with a different DLC set. You can change which member's copy you play at any time under the same warning.

Multiplayer between members follows from this. Two members playing the same online game together need two copies in the family. Owning one copy and sharing it does not let both of you join the same match.

Steam family sharing region rules

Steam Families has no published "same country" rule. What Valve does publish are two region-related limits.

• Content restrictions. A game or DLC that is restricted in your region or in the other member's region cannot be shared. Sharing does not unlock a game that is not sold or not allowed where the borrower lives.
• The household check. Valve expects the family to be one household and can refuse a join when "account activity" does not show a shared household. Valve does not explain how it measures this, so we do not guess at the signals.

The old system had the same limit. PCPer's report on the 2014 release noted that Family Library Sharing "does not get around region locks".

Steam Families parental controls for child accounts

Parental controls only apply to members added as a child. Valve's advice is simple: add an account as a child if you expect to limit which games it can play and how long and when it can play them, otherwise add it as an adult. Child accounts are meant for accounts that parents or guardians create for their children.

To switch them on, an adult opens Account Settings, then Family Management, then Manage, expands the child's entry and toggles "Enable Parental controls". The panel that appears holds game access, feature access and playtime limits. The Recover Account button sits in the same place, and it only appears 30 days after the child joined and only for adults.

Valve has kept fixing the controls since launch. The Steam Client update of 1 April 2025 fixed child accounts in a family getting extra playtime after switching to offline mode, and the 9 March 2026 client update improved the Steam Families settings layout and navigation on desktop, Steam Deck and mobile.

What happened to the old Steam Family Library Sharing

Family Library Sharing was the first version. Valve announced it in September 2013 and opened it to all users after a six-month beta. PC Gamer's report of 28 February 2014 sums up the old limits: up to 10 computers, up to five accounts, and only one account playing from a library at a time, with the owner always taking priority.

Steam Families replaced it. Valve opened the Steam Families beta on 18 March 2024 and released it to everyone on 11 September 2024. The old feature pages are gone: on 7 November 2026, store.steampowered.com/promotion/familysharing and store.steampowered.com/sharing both redirect to the Steam Families launch post.

If you used the old system, Valve's advice is to set up a Steam Family. Steam then suggests inviting the accounts you used to share with. Your old opt-outs and game eligibility carry over automatically.

VAC bans and Steam Family Sharing: who gets banned

This is where a family can hurt the owner. Valve's launch FAQ answers it directly: "If a family member gets banned for cheating while playing your copy of a game, you (the game owner) will also be banned in that game. Other family members are not impacted."

The Support FAQ adds that not every VAC-protected game is shareable at all. VAC bans themselves are permanent: Valve's VAC page says they "cannot be removed by Steam Support".

Games with their own anti-cheat follow the same logic on the developer's side. The Steamworks documentation tells developers who run a ban system other than VAC that they may need to check ownership "in case both the player and the original game owner need to be banned". Games can detect a shared copy with ISteamApps::BIsSubscribedFromFamilySharing and find the owner with ISteamApps::GetAppOwner, or check from a server with the ISteamUser/CheckAppOwnership Web API, where a shared copy returns permanent as false. Valve also says shared licenses are temporary and family members should not get permanent ownership rights on a game's backend.

How to set up Steam Family Sharing, step by step

You can manage a family from the Steam Client, the Steam Mobile App or a browser. These steps follow Valve's Support FAQ.

1. Open the Steam Store, click your account name and choose Account Details.
2. Open the Family Management section.
3. Click Create a Family and enter a name. You can change the name later at any time.
4. Click Invite a Member and pick or search for the account you want to add.
5. Choose adult or child for that member. Adults can manage invites and restrictions; children follow parental controls.
6. The invited account gets an alert and accepts the invite. Its shareable games then appear in everyone's family library.
7. For a child, go to Account Settings, Family Management, Manage, expand the child's entry and toggle Enable Parental controls.
8. In the library, use Group By Library if you want family games shown separately.

The family library keeps getting small additions. In the Steam Client beta of 15 October 2026, Valve started showing games played through Family Sharing in the Games List and made friends with Family Sharing playtime eligible for achievement comparison.

Steam Family Sharing timeline

For other Steam reference data, see our Steam level XP chart, the most played Steam games in 2026 and the best-selling Steam games. If you plan to buy games for the family library, the Steam sale calendar lists the next sale dates.

Frequently asked questions

Your own Steam library instead of a borrowed one

A shared copy is a temporary license; an account library stays yours to play without waiting for a free copy.

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Sources and editorial scope

Reviewed 7 November 2026. Rules, limits, cooldowns, exclusions and setup steps: Valve's Steam Families User Guide & FAQ (version 7, edited 19 September 2024) and the Steam Families is here post of 11 September 2024. Beta date: Introducing Steam Families. Developer side: Steamworks Steam Families documentation, ISteamApps and ISteamUser. Bans: Valve's VAC FAQ. Family View: Family View support page. Later changes: Steam news posts of 1 April 2025, 9 March 2026 and 15 October 2026. The old Family Library Sharing limits come from PC Gamer and PCPer, because Valve's original FAQ for it no longer returns content. Community discussion: the Steam Families group. We did not test the household check, which Valve does not document.

The Steam Subscriber Agreement does not allow you to sell your Steam account or otherwise transfer it. Joining a Steam Family does not give anyone permission to sell, share or transfer a Steam account.