Skip to main content

Want to play your friend’s Steam games? Here’s how to use Steam Family Sharing

how to family share in steam stock photo dean drobot
Dean Drobot/123RF
Steam is the most popular digital distribution platform for PC games, and if you are into PC gaming, it’s likely you and your friends have built up a substantial library of Steam games over the years. Although the service has frequent sales, one can only afford to buy so many games. Thankfully, if one of your friends owns a game that you don’t, it is possible for you to play it — without borrowing their computer  — thanks to Steam’s Family Sharing function. The process is simple, and allows you to share your library with up to five other accounts, so if your friend wants to try, say, Shadow of Mordor from your account, they can do so hassle-free. Here’s how it works.

Before you share your account, you must enable the “Steam Guard” feature, which requires you to input a code — received by email or text message — when someone logs into your Steam account from a new computer.

Recommended Videos

To activate Steam Guard, log into your account and open Preferences.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the Account tab, click the button labeled Manage Steam Guard Account Security…

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Next, select whether you want to receive your Steam Guard notifications via text or email.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

With Steam Guard activated, you will be able to share your library with another computer. To do so, you must log into your Steam account on that computer and go to your Preferences. Afterward, select the tab labeled Family.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Check the box labeled Authorize Library Sharing on this computer.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

You should see a list of accounts that have also logged into that computer in the past. Check whichever ones you want to share with, then click the box labeled OK. Now, when your friend logs into the selected account on that computer, they will be able to download and play games from your library.

Keep in mind, however, that there are limits to Family Sharing: Two users cannot access the same library at the same time. In the event that you and your friend both want to play a game from the same account at the same time, the library’s owner gets priority.

Will Nicol
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…
Here are the 10 best gaming keyboards I’d recommend to anyone in 2024
A custom keyboard sitting among keycaps and switches.

Whether you want to gain a competitive edge or just mess around with some RGB lighting, you'll need one of the best gaming keyboards. Although the old guard of brands like Corsair, SteelSeries, and Razer still make some excellent gaming keyboards, the competition is fierce in 2024, with smaller brands rising up to push the market of gaming keyboards forward.

An excellent example of that is our top pick, Asus' ROG Strix Scope II 96, which elevates gaming keyboards to an enthusiast level while maintaining a mainstream price. Although it's the top gaming keyboard for most people, it isn't the best for everyone. After putting our fingers on dozens of different gaming keyboards, these 10 are the only ones you should keep in mind.

Read more
If you want to buy an RTX 4090, now might be your last chance
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

There's no disputing that the RTX 4090 is one of the best graphics cards you can buy, but now might be your last chance to buy it. According to members of the Board Channels forum (via VideoCardz), Nvidia has discontinued the graphics card and will stop fulfilling new orders this month.

We saw this coming. Last month, members of the Board Channels forums signaled that Nvidia was getting ready to discontinue the RTX 4090 to make way for next-gen RTX 50-series GPUs. Nvidia hasn't said it's discontinuing the card, and it likely won't, but some regions are already experiencing shortages and increased prices. The German outlet PC Games Hardware writes: "It is now becoming increasingly clear that the GeForce RTX 4090 ... will soon have reached its end of lifetime," following high prices and "increasingly poor availability" in the region.

Read more
Nearly two years later, AMD’s RX 7000 GPUs don’t even make up 1% of Steam players
RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT on a pink background.

AMD's latest RX 7000 GPUs may be some of the best graphics cards you can buy, but they aren't popular among gamers, at least according to the latest Steam hardware survey. Only one of AMD's RDNA 3 graphics cards even shows up on the survey, with the RX 7900 XTX occupying just 0.37% -- down by 0.03% compared to last month.

It's worth noting that Steam doesn't list every GPU represented in the hardware survey each month, but it at least lists every GPU that represents a decent chunk of players. For context, the lowest-ranking GPU on the list is AMD's RX 5500 XT at just 0.16% of players. Other RX 7000 GPUs like the excellent RX 7900 GRE are likely represented further down, though with a share of only one-tenth of 1% or less.

Read more