The Most Expensive Game on Steam: Is It Worth $1,000 in 2026?
The Most Expensive Game on Steam: Is It Worth $1,000 in 2026?
You know what? I miss the days when a “pricey” game meant buying the Collector’s Edition of Call of Duty for a hundred bucks. Those were simpler times. Back then, we complained about horse armor DLC and fifty-dollar season passes. But today, if you sort the Steam store by “Price: High to Low,” you enter a weird, lawless wasteland that feels less like a game shop and more like a money-laundering front. It’s January 2026. GTA VI is finally eating up our hard drives, and VR is actually starting to feel mainstream. But we aren’t here to talk about the blockbusters. We’re here to look at the outliers. The oddities. The stuff that makes your wallet scream just looking at the “Add to Cart” button. I went hunting for the most expensive game on Steam, and what I found wasn’t a triple-A masterpiece coated in digital gold. It was a headache.
The Current King: What Is The Most Expensive Game on Steam?
If you were expecting a secret version of Half-Life 3 or a hyper-realistic space sim used by NASA, I’m sorry to disappoint you. As of early 2026, the title for the single most expensive base game (that you can actually buy without being in on a joke) generally goes to Ascent Free-Roaming VR Experience. The price tag? A cool $999.
Yeah. One thousand dollars. For a video game.
Now, before you grab your pitchforks and start yelling about corporate greed, let me explain. Ascent isn’t really trying to sell itself to you or me. It’s not meant for your living room – unless you live in a warehouse. This game is designed for commercial VR arcades. You know, those places in the mall where you pay twenty bucks to strap a headset on and walk around a padded room shooting zombies? That’s the target audience here.
The developers priced it at a grand because they’re selling a commercial license disguised as a retail game. It’s a B2B (business-to-business) transaction – happening on a platform built for gamers.
But here’s the thing – it’s still in the store. You can buy it. Steam doesn’t stop you. If you have a thousand dollars burning a hole in your pocket and a desire to own a game you can’t properly play without a 50×50 foot playspace, it’s all yours.
The “Shovelware” Mafia
However, if we ignore the commercial VR tools, the crown for the most expensive game on Steam gets passed around like a hot potato in a room full of scammers.
Every few weeks, a new game pops up with a price tag of $199.99 or even $1,999. Right now, there’s a cluster of asset-flip games – titles like Fix My Cat Doc or Fly Fly Dragon! – sitting at the $199.99 mark.
Honestly, these aren’t “games” in the traditional sense. They are barely functional collections of free assets slapped together in the Unity engine. Why are they so expensive:
- The “Hey, Look at Me” Effect: It works, right? We’re talking about them.
- Steam Library Collectors: Believe it or not, some people compulsively collect the “most expensive” stuff just to flex on their profile.
- The Laundromat Theory: I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but if I wanted to move money around quietly, buying my own $200 game a few thousand times wouldn’t be the worst way to do it.
Is the Most Expensive Game on Steam Actually Worth It?
Short answer: No. Long answer: Absolutely not, and please don’t do it.
Let’s be real for a second. When you buy a Ferrari, you get a fast car. When you buy a Rolex, you get a watch that lasts forever. When you buy the most expensive game on Steam, you usually get a broken tech demo or a joke.
Take Ascent, for example. Even if you have the hardware, the reviews are sparse and mixed. It’s a tool, not an experience designed for a solo gamer. And the $200 shovelware games? They are often worse than free flash games from 2005.
| Item | Estimated Cost (2026) | Fun Factor (1-10) |
| Ascent Free-Roaming VR | $999 | 2 (unless you own an arcade) |
| High-End GPU (RTX 60-series) | $900 – $1,200 | 10 |
| Steam Deck 2 (OLED) | $650 | 9 |
| 14 Copies of GTA VI | $980 | 10 |
| 5,000 Chicken Nuggets | $999 | 8 (Stomach ache pending) |
You see what I mean? The value proposition just isn’t there. It’s a novelty item. It’s the digital equivalent of buying a gold-plated stapler. It does the same job as the regular one, but you feel sillier using it.
The “DLC” Loophole
Now, if we want to get technical – and gamers love getting technical – the true “most expensive game” isn’t a single purchase. It’s Train Simulator.
I love mentioning this one because it’s hilarious. The base game is cheap. It’s practically free during sales. But the DLC? Oh boy.
Train Simulator Classic has thousands of DLC packs. New trains, new routes, specific landscapes. If you were to click “Select All” and add every single piece of DLC to your cart in 2026, the total would be somewhere north of $10,000.
But here’s the catch: You aren’t supposed to buy it all. It’s like a model train shop. You don’t walk into a hobby store and buy every single locomotive they have in stock (unless you’re Jeff Bezos). You buy the ones you like. Still, it technically holds the record for the most expensive complete experience.
History of The Most Expensive Game on Steam: From Spooky Men to Taxes
The history of high-priced Steam games is a comedy of errors. It’s actually kind of fascinating how we got here.
A few years back, we had the legend of The Hidden and Unknown. Do you remember that one? It launched at $2,000. The developer claimed the price was “philosophical.” He said the game was only two hours long, so you could beat it and refund it if you didn’t think it was worth the money. It was a text-based visual novel that looked like it was made in Microsoft Paint.
Then there was Spooky Men. This was a generic horror game that suddenly jumped in price to $1,000,000 for a few days. Yes, a million dollars. Obviously, nobody bought it (I hope), but it generated a ton of headlines. The developer eventually lowered it to a few cents, proving that the price tag was nothing more than a desperate scream for attention.
Why does this keep happening:
- The Refund Policy: Steam allows refunds if you play less than two hours. Developers of these “luxury” games know this. They create a loop where you buy it, laugh, screenshot it for Reddit, and then refund it.
- Viral Marketing: In an ocean of 100,000 games, being “the expensive one” is a valid marketing strategy.
- No Upper Limit: For a long time, Valve didn’t seem to have a hard cap on pricing, though they’ve started manually reviewing the absurd ones recently.
What About “Star Citizen”?
I hear you asking, “What about that space game that people have spent thousands on?” Star Citizen is definitely the most expensive game to be a fan of, with ship packages costing upwards of $48,000. But – and this is key – it’s not on Steam. It lives in its own ecosystem, safe from Steam reviews and sale charts. So, for the purpose of this search, it doesn’t count.
The “Collector’s” Mindset
There is a small, strange subculture of Steam users who actually enjoy this. They display these games on their profiles like badges of honor. “Look at me,” their profile says, “I spent $200 on Fix My Cat Doc.”
It’s a flex. A weird, confusing flex, but a flex nonetheless. It’s the same psychology that drives people to buy NFTs or designer T-shirts that look exactly like Hanes undershirts. Value is subjective. To 99% of us, these games are trash. To that 1%, they are rare artifacts.
Warning Signs
If you are browsing the store and see a game with a price tag that looks like a rent payment, keep these red flags in mind:
- Generic Assets: Does the main character look like a default Unity model?
- Broken English: Is the description riddled with errors?
- No Reviews: Does a $500 game have zero user reviews?
- Suspicious Release Date: Did it come out yesterday?
Don’t be the person who buys it “for the meme” and forgets to refund it within 14 days. That is an expensive mistake.
A Better Way to Spend Your Money
Honestly, if you have $1,000 to drop on gaming, just spread the love. Go find fifty amazing indie games priced at $20. Support developers who are actually pouring their hearts into their work.
Buy Hades II. Buy Hollow Knight: Silksong (if it’s out… is it out yet? Please tell me it’s out). Buy Vampire Survivors. Buy games that respect your time and your wallet.
The most expensive game on Steam isn’t a trophy. It’s a trap. It’s a curiosity at best and a scam at worst.
FAQ
What is currently the most expensive game on Steam in 2026?
Technically, the Ascent Free-Roaming VR Experience at roughly $999, though various shovelware titles often pop up at $199 or more.
Can I get a refund if I buy a $1,000 game?
Yes, as long as you have played for less than two hours and owned it for less than 14 days, Steam’s standard refund policy applies.
Is The Hidden and Unknown still $2,000?
No, that game was removed or had its price drastically lowered after the initial controversy in 2023.
Why are some Steam games so expensive?
Usually, it’s either a commercial license (like for arcades), a marketing stunt to get attention, or a possible money-laundering scheme.
Does Train Simulator really cost $10,000?
The base game is cheap, but if you buy all the optional DLC trains and routes, the total cost exceeds $10,000.
Are expensive games on Steam of better quality?
Rarely. High price on Steam usually correlates with scams or commercial tools, not quality gameplay.
What is the most expensive DLC on Steam?
Some “Support the Dev” DLC packs or commercial use licenses can cost hundreds of dollars, but Train Simulator has the highest cumulative DLC cost.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. The hunt for the most expensive game on Steam leads us down a rabbit hole of VR tools, troll developers, and questionable financial decisions. It’s a fun window shopping trip, but I wouldn’t recommend buying anything.
Gaming can be an expensive hobby, but it doesn’t need to be that expensive. Stick to the sales, support indie devs, and maybe – just maybe – spend that extra cash on a better chair. Your back will thank you