How to sell Unity games on Steam, from licence to launch

Unity Personal is for individuals and small organizations with less than 200,000 USD of revenue and funds raised in the last 12 months. Unity's FAQ states that you own the content you create with Personal, and within that limit you can sell what you make. The threshold rose to 200,000 USD when Unity 6 was released on October 17, 2024.

Two other changes matter. Unity cancelled the Runtime Fee on September 12, 2024, and the cancellation applies to games made with Unity 6 or any other version, so there is no per-install charge. And with Unity 6 the Made with Unity splash screen is optional for Personal users. If you ship on an older Unity version, check the splash screen rules for that version.

Steamworks.NET is a C# wrapper designed to stay as close as possible to Valve's C++ API, so Valve's documentation largely covers it. It supports Windows, macOS and Linux, is MIT licensed, and currently builds against Steamworks SDK 1.65. Pick it if you want to follow Valve's docs line by line.

Facepunch.Steamworks wraps the same API in idiomatic C#, with async call results, events for callbacks and a single C# DLL with no extra native dependency apart from Steam. It supports IL2CPP and is also MIT licensed. Pick it if you prefer a friendlier API and are comfortable reading its wiki. Either way, you initialize with your app ID and add achievements, stats, cloud saves and the overlay from your own scripts.

Steam delivers files from depots. You can keep one depot for all operating systems or create a depot per operating system, so a Windows player downloads only Windows files. Builds are uploaded with steamcmd running a build script that maps your local build folder to depot IDs, and each upload appears in the Steamworks builds page, where you set it live on the default branch or a beta branch.

Make the Windows 64-bit standalone build your main target, since that is where most Steam players are, and test it on a machine without Unity or your development tools installed. Missing runtime files are the most common first-build failure.

Valve reviews the store page and the build separately, each typically in 3 to 5 business days, and recommends allowing at least 7 business days for each, with the Coming Soon page public for two weeks before release. The table above has the dates to plan around, and the full Steam publishing checklist covers the rest, from account setup to launch discounts.

Nothing about Steam favors one engine. If your team knows Unity, your game is close to done, and the licence fits your revenue, shipping from Unity is usually the fastest route to launch. Porting is a choice to make for concrete reasons, such as a workflow you prefer or engine terms that fit your plans better, not a requirement for selling on Steam.

If you do decide to move, the Unity to Godot guide maps every core concept and gives the rebuild order.

The engine gets the game onto Steam. The store page gets it bought. Summer's asset tools do not care which engine you use, because they produce standard files. Generate key art for every Steam capsule from a screenshot of your own character, short vertical and wide video shots for teasers, and character voice lines, then use them on the store page and in your Unity project.

Summer does not record gameplay, so your trailer's gameplay footage still comes from your own capture. The capsule art page lists every size Steam needs.

• Capsule key art from your own characters, in wide and tall compositions
• Short generated shots for teasers and trailer inserts
• Character voice lines for trailers and in-game dialogue
• Standard files that import into Unity like any other asset