Keeping up with all the new games on Steam can be a job unto itself, and potentially disappointing if you're rushing to grab stuff the second it launches. That's why every month we wait for the dust to settle before picking the best new Steam games we've played and adding them to our Steam Hype Playlist. These are August 2026's Steam games we think genuinely deserve your time.

August was absolutely packed with great games big and small. While things still seem very troubled at the AAA end of things (as excellent as Star Wars Zero Company is, the studio behind it is on life support), small and mid-sized studios have seen fantastic success, with some great, fresh concepts that give us new hope for the future. However things shake out, we're not going to be short on great games for a long, long time. And so, on with the fun:

How to Fish PC

This month's breakout multiplayer hit, made with support by Landfall, the Totally Accurate Battle Simulator & Peak devs. Developers Dazed Games have certainly brought some of that chaotic, wobbly energy to the table. You and your buddies are stranded on a small island, menaced by increasingly ornery sea-creatures. What starts out as almost-normal fishing quickly escalates to chaotic action, fighting fish in melee or blasting them with the best guns money can buy. Fight bosses, buy rides to more dangerous (but profitable) islands and remind everything with gills and flippers why we're the uncontested champions of dry land.

Fields of Mistria PC

Perhaps a little derivative, but it's undeniable that Fields of Mistria knows its market - Stardew Valley fans looking for a little more depth to their romance. And most other mechanics, for that matter. With a gorgeous retro anime aesthetic and a diverse bunch of eligible partners to smooch on, it's not hard to see the appeal. This one's been around in early access for a while, but the final v1.0 release this month wrapped up the last major loose quest-lines and (more importantly) finally let players tie the knot with their waifu or husbando of choice. Only one though. There's no polygamy. Yet.

Big Walk PC

This one will be on every GOTY list for sure. A beautiful co-op puzzle exploration adventure from the Untitled Goose Game team that's all about communication. Outside of some tutorial text, this game is almost wordless, so you'll be coming up with your own vocabulary as you go. You and your buddies (the game scales from 2 to 12 players) are set loose across a beautiful Australian-inspired island, solving smart puzzles and bringing the island's machinery–trains, ski-lifts and more–back to life. There's almost no UI, so you'll be communicating through talking, shouting and frantic gesturing, especially when the puzzles creatively limit your options.

Mortal Shell II PC

A real treat for souls-likers. The original Mortal Shell (a new studio's first ever game, just to be clear) had the feel of a first draft - a rough concept not fully fleshed out. This one fleshes those ideas out into a dense, fast-paced but non-linear take on the genre with a fantastically vivid black metal aesthetic and a sense of humor underpinning it all. Taking a few notes from Sekiro, there's no stamina bar here, just a limited block gauge that can be preserved through well-timed parries and lots of fun ways to play. Each of the eight 'shells' (bodies you can inhabit) is a distinct class, each with their own skill tree.

Star Wars Zero Company PC

Developed by a studio splintered away from Firaxis' XCom team, the lineage here is clear to see. Build a squad of four commandos, taking turn-based tactical jobs and getting involved in a big conspiracy set in the later years of the Clone Wars era. While still challenging, Zero Company is more forgiving of minor mistakes than XCom, with units only taking lasting injuries (or risking permanent death) after their health is depleted. Deaths matter all the more here, as the characters are a surprisingly fleshed out bunch, with unique abilities, voices and quirks, turning risky plays into truly dramatic moments as your squad put it all on the line.

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator PC

Who knew math could be fun? And so morally ambiguous? Set in alt-history 1920s dieselpunk Spain, you are the turret operator for a gigantic mobile artillery mech, raining car-sized shells down on the enemies of the monarchy. And you do this mostly by running around inside the hull, interpreting telegrams from spotters, mapping out relative locations on the battle-map and triangulating where you should be shooting using virtual rulers and protractors. Dial in those numbers, load the guns, fire and hope–as the shell slowly flies across the battlefield–that you did your math right. While already great, there's more planned, including online multiplayer and expansions.

CICADAMATA" PC

What happens when you stick Neon White, Marathon (2026) and PS1 classic Jumping Flash in a blender? This breathlessly cool speedrunning platform FPS. While there's some juicy story here, it's mostly hidden away in optional terminal screens (a nod to the classic Marathon games), putting the focus squarely on blazing through abstract cyber-worlds, goomba-bouncing on heads, railgun-sniping distant enemies and optimizing your racing line. Scoring takes both speed and combat skill into account, encouraging clearing whole levels in a single graceful combo, which feels great and is only improved by a driving, breakbeat-heavy soundtrack. We hope that teased hints at future episodes bring us more of this.

VHOLUME PC

Released at the exact same moment as Cicadamata, this one is ALSO a leaderboard-chasing first-person platformer, but could otherwise not be any more different. No guns here, this is a dreamlike parkour experience, with you sprinting, wall-running and butt-sliding your way through the narrow alleys and crumbling tunnels of an impossibly vast concrete megastructure. There's something hazy and dreamlike about both the aesthetics and feel of the movement here, making it very easy to get into a focused flow-state, aided further by a dreamy, ambient synth soundtrack. Lots of secrets hidden in this one too, and the community-made levels are already piling up.

Sandustry PC

Making its early access debut this month, but already a must-play if you liked Satisfactory, Noita or Terraria at all. And if you liked all three, you'll probably be hooked. You're here to mine resources and explore a strange alien planet, full of mysterious ruins deep underground. Everything here is physics-driven, so your automation efforts are all about moving sand and dirt effectively, filtering, sorting and refining. It's deeply satisfying to see everything working, and there's already hundreds of mods for this one, despite it only being a few weeks old. We can see this one growing for many years to come.

And there we have just a thin slice of August's greatest! There was some soul-searching involved in picking which ones would make the cut, so check out our coverage of the rest of the month to see the rest! It's looking like September is going to be even more packed, already. Think we missed something essential or just want to praise our amazing taste? Get over to that comment box below and commence the hooting and/or hollering.