How to hide games and activity on Steam

Steam gives you two buttons that sound like they do the same thing and do not. Hide this game tidies your own library and hides nothing from anyone else. Mark as Private is the one that keeps a game off your profile, out of your recent activity, and out of your friends' feeds. If you want a game hidden from other people, you want Mark as Private.

Hide vs Mark as Private

	Hide this game	Mark as Private
Removed from your library view	Yes	No
Hidden from your profile	No	Yes
Hidden from recent activity and friend feeds	No	Yes
Hidden while you are playing it	No	Yes
Hides achievements and playtime for that game	No	Yes
Shared with Steam Family	Yes	No

Hide is housekeeping. It moves a game out of your library list so you stop scrolling past it, but as GamingHQ put it, a hidden game is still visible on your profile and while you play it. Mark as Private is the privacy control. Valve announced it in late 2023, tested it in the beta client, and rolled it out to everyone by August 2024.

How to mark a game as private

1. Open your Library in the Steam client.
2. Right-click the game.
3. Choose Manage, then Mark as Private.

To undo it, follow the same path and pick Unmark as Private. It works per game, so you can lock down one title without touching the rest of your library.

How to hide a game from your library

1. Right-click the game in your Library.
2. Choose Manage, then Hide this game.

To find it again, open the View menu at the top of the client and select Hidden games. From there, right-click and choose Remove from Hidden to bring it back.

Hiding your recent activity

Your profile's recent activity panel lists what you have played lately with hours next to each game. There are two ways to clear it:

• One game at a time. Mark it as private. It drops out of recent activity and out of the activity feed your friends see.
• Everything at once. Set Game details to Friends Only or Private in your privacy settings. That hides your whole library, recent activity, and playtime in one go. The public profile guide walks through that screen.

Hiding what game you are playing

Again, two levels.

Mark as Private hides a specific game. According to Beebom's walkthrough, a private game will not show under your current game activity even while you are playing it online, and it will not appear in your friends' activity either. You can still invite friends into multiplayer if you want to.

If you want to hide your status entirely rather than one game, set yourself to Invisible. How to appear offline on Steam covers the difference between Invisible and Offline.

Hiding achievements and your wishlist

Steam's Game details setting covers your games, your wishlist, your achievements and your playtime as a single bundle. Setting it to Private hides all four. There is no separate switch for the wishlist alone.

For a single game, Mark as Private hides its achievements and hours without touching anything else.

Buying a game privately

You can make a game private before you own it. After you click Add to cart, a dropdown under the game name lets you switch from "for my account" to "for my account: private". The game arrives already marked private and never shows up on your profile, even for a moment. That is what people are asking about when they search "for my account private".

The Steam Family catch

Private games do not get shared. Early in the beta, marked games still showed up for family members, but Valve changed that, and a Valve developer confirmed in the Steam forums that games marked as private should not be shared across the family. If someone in your family suddenly lost access to a game, check whether the owner marked it private. The family sharing guide covers the rest of the rules.

Other things marking private changes

• No trading cards. You cannot earn Steam Trading Cards while playing a private game.
• Steam Replay can get weird. Private games are removed from your year in review, and players have reported the Replay showcase on their profile disappearing after they marked a game private until they reopened Replay to refresh it. More on Replay in how to see your Steam Replay.
• Your hours still count. Marking a game private hides its playtime from other people. Steam keeps tracking it, and unmarking brings the full total back.

FAQ

What does Mark as Private do on Steam? It hides a single game from your profile, recent activity, friends' feeds and your in-game status, and it hides that game's achievements and playtime. It also stops the game being shared with your Steam Family.

What is the difference between Hide and Mark as Private? Hide only removes a game from your own library list. Other people can still see it. Mark as Private hides it from other people.

Can friends see private games on Steam? No. Private games do not appear on your profile, in activity feeds, or as your current game while you play.

How do I hide my recent activity on Steam? Mark individual games as private, or set Game details to Private in your privacy settings to hide all of it at once.

Can Steam Family see private games? No. Games marked private are removed from the shared family library.

How do I see my hidden games? Open the View menu at the top of the Steam client and choose Hidden games.