How to Hide the Smut That You’re Playing on Steam

If you play video games on PC, odds are you use Steam as your primary gaming platform. The digital distribution behemoth delivers global entertainment, with PC games that span all genres and demographics. This includes a massive catalog of thoroughly not-safe-for-work (NSFW) games, which may pique the interest of curious rascals itching to see a little digital skin.

Naturally, you may wish to hide your gaming eccentricities from family and friends, and save yourself from embarrassing questions down the line. So, whether you’re into a lewd gacha game like Action Taimanin(Opens in a new window), or something thoroughly hardcore like Honey Select 2: Libido Deluxe(Opens in a new window), we’ll show you how to hide what you’re playing on Steam. 

Our Favorite Valve Products

Lewd Gaming Sanctuary

But first some backstory. Steam is not only a haven for PC gamers the world over, but it has also become a hotspot for NSFW and even outright sexual video game content. The arrival of Hatred—an ultraviolent twin-stick shooter—as Steam’s first Adults Only (AO) title back in 2015 emboldened developers to push boundaries. At the time, Valve carefully reviewed games to give them the green light into the store, but adult-oriented games slowly began to trickle through.

This culminated in a Steam Community blog post(Opens in a new window) in June 2018, where Valve announced that it would allow pretty much any type of game on Steam, so long as the content was not illegal or trolling. The inclusion of the Adult Only search category, and a plethora of user-defined NSFW tags later, and Steam is now home to a burgeoning library of ultra-mature games that span every genre. 

Steam’s Invisible Mode and Beyond

The simplest way to hide what you’re playing is to set your Steam account’s online status to Invisible. This setting is accessible from the Friends and Chat menu, and it hides your status from everyone while active. With this mode active, you’ll appear offline to everyone, but can still chat with friends if you so choose. Our guide goes beyond that, by hiding your gaming activities via Steam’s profile. In doing so, you can still remain visible online, but no one can see what you’re playing. 

Follow these steps keep your gaming sessions private, so friends and family can’t see how many shameful hours you’ve put into these games. 

(Credit: PCMag)

How to Edit Your Steam Profile’s Privacy Settings

• With Steam open, navigate to your username on the top of the screen, and select Profile from the drop-down menu.

• Click the Edit Profile button that’s located beneath your Steam Level number.

• You should see several descending tabs with profile information on the screen’s left side. Click Privacy Settings at the bottom of the list.

• Mouse over the Game Details and select Private. 

The Game Details section includes a list of all of your purchased Steam games, titles in your wish list, achievements, and playtime. More importantly, it determines whether you’re seen as “in-game” in the Friends and Chat box; it also displays the title of the game you’re playing. When set to Private, you should see an dashed-through eye icon next to your username in Friends and Chat. With this confirmation, your account is ready for guilt-free debauchery.

(Credit: PCMag)

How to Keep Friends’ Statuses Private

If you want to spread the privacy to your buddies, you can also adjust your Friends List from Privacy Settings. Friends List controls who can see your list of friends via the Steam Community page. This doesn’t affect your own privacy, mind you, but it doesn’t hurt to keep your buddies hidden from prying eyes. Here’s now to do it.

• Choose either Friends Only or Private, so that only your friends can see who you’re friends with, or no one can see the list at all, respectively. That’s it! 

If ever there was a time to enable privacy setting for your Steam profile, it’s now. Have fun.

For more PC game reviews and previews, check out PCMag’s Steam Curator page(Opens in a new window). And for in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag’s Pop-Off(Opens in a new window) YouTube channel.