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PayPalValve updated a help article recently, noting that they will no longer be supplying physical Steam gift cards due to scammers.
Since 2012, you could go into certain stores and pick up a Steam Wallet gift card, which could then be used to redeem the code and add funds directly into your Steam account for use later. They did make quite nice gifts for people, but sadly once the current stock is gone, Valve will not be supplying retailers with any more. Valve continues to offer the digital version, so you can still e-send someone a gift card for use on Steam, just no physical cards when they're all used up.
As spotted by SteamDB, the help page now notes:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.Can I purchase Steam Gift Cards at retailers?
Yes, but only for a limited time.
We introduced Steam Gift Cards to retail stores back in 2012, and added the digital program in 2017. Unfortunately, scammers use gift cards from major brands like Steam to take advantage of all people all over the world.
We’ve responded to gift card scams over the years by taking a number of actions to protect customers, including:
- Working with retailers
- Working with law enforcement
- Making changes to the cards, including adding a prominent scam warning
- Limiting redemption to be in the currency of your Steam wallet
- Limiting availability of cards
- Removing cards from sale when we observed abnormal activity
As we have continued to put more and more restrictions in place, scammers have adapted. They continue to have an impact on Steam customers and other unsuspecting individuals. So we've made the difficult decision to end the Steam Gift Card program at retail stores.
As Steam Gift Cards run out of stock at retail locations, we will not be restocking them. We expect all retailers to be out of stock by the end of 2026. Though we will no longer be selling physical gift cards, you will still have the ability to use your existing gift cards on Steam whenever you choose, subject to local laws.
We also continue to offer Steam Digital Gift Cards, and are working to make this an even better experience. Guest checkout, which we added last year, is another way for family members and friends to gift Steam users with a digital card anytime.
You can learn more about gift card scams here.
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You can also find comments for this article on social media: 
mr-victory 6 hours ago
Quoting: rea987This doesn't clarify the digital cards being sold in 3rd party sites. Since my country of origin is different than my country of residence, same applies to my Steam account, hence I am not able use my debit card with my Steam account. Therefore, I need to use Steam wallet codes sold in 3rd party sides. If that's ending, this will affect me greatly...You can change the registered country of your Steam account every 6 months. However if you have some games with region block you may not be able to play them anymore, Steam may refuse to launch them.
Quoting: LoudTechie[/But Wero is not offered yet, right?
American Express, Discover, JCB, PayPal, Wero(for european customers), PaysafeCard and Klarna are all still options.
Last edited by MrBelles on 10 Jun 2026 at 7:12 pm UTC
I know this solution isn't anonymous but, it should help some of you.
Last edited by Highball on 10 Jun 2026 at 7:56 pm UTC
Quoting: MrBellesNo one else is asking this, but I'm not sure how exactly removing physical cards will make things safer as opposed to digital ones. In physical stores, there are people that can step in and prevent someone from being scammed, while if they are instructed to purchase the cards online, there is less of a chance for an outside observer to step in, and it won't give them as much time to figure out they're being duped. I know Steam's website can still issue the same warnings that stores are putting on signs, but I haven't purchased a gift card online before so I'm not entirely sure.I don't think Valve or any one involved is worried about people being scammed in stores. The scams happen through private sellers and the second hand market. The reason physical cards are prime scam targets are many:
- they don't disappear once used
- it's impossible to check whether they've been used
- often people likely to buy cards are also more susceptible to be scammed (kids for example)
- they're hard to trace
- by the time the scam is discovered, the scammer is long gone
Quoting: PyrateThe thing I initially wanted to highlight by mentioning the years is that we already have these technologies that can enable our freedoms, but for reasons, including convenience and laziness, we choose to ignore them.To be fair I ignore Bitcoin because of the environmental devastation and human costs (try living next to a "bitcoin mine".) It's actually considered a feature that it uses more electricity the longer it goes on.
Quoting: MrBellesNo one else is asking this, but I'm not sure how exactly removing physical cards will make things safer as opposed to digital ones. In physical stores, there are people that can step in and prevent someone from being scammed, while if they are instructed to purchase the cards online, there is less of a chance for an outside observer to step in, and it won't give them as much time to figure out they're being duped. I know Steam's website can still issue the same warnings that stores are putting on signs, but I haven't purchased a gift card online before so I'm not entirely sure.
For a variety of reasons, scammers instruct victims to go withdraw cash first, and use that to purchase the cards, which are also physical items. It makes the whole thing less traceable and much less reversible; even if the fraud is picked up on quickly, the cash spent can't be traced to the cards purchased to remotely disable them and remove their value unless and until the victim returns to the store where the purchase was made and that store can find the transaction and has a record of the card numbers that can be passed on to Steam/the card issuer.
Quoting: CarollyThis is very true, in addition to the environmental concerns, because Bitcoin can be mined by ASICs, it also leads to centralization and monopoly of the mining the coin, which goes very much against one of the core principals that 'anyone can contribute with their consumer CPU'. Again, Monero fixes this by making mining on ASICs extremely inefficient nobody does it, people are mining on Ryzens for the most part. No farms in the scale that Bitcoin allows are possible.Quoting: PyrateThe thing I initially wanted to highlight by mentioning the years is that we already have these technologies that can enable our freedoms, but for reasons, including convenience and laziness, we choose to ignore them.To be fair I ignore Bitcoin because of the environmental devastation and human costs (try living next to a "bitcoin mine".) It's actually considered a feature that it uses more electricity the longer it goes on.