A gamer purchased six games on Steam in 2016, but due to a bad decision, it cost him around 13,000 euros.
How did the gamer lose so much money? The user “Robin_Circle_Music” reports in a post on Reddit that he bought six games on Steam in 2016 and lists five of these games along with their purchase prices in a table:
- ShellShock Live – 4.54 US Dollars
- Valiant – 19.99 US Dollars
- Space Pirate Trainer – 14.99 US Dollars
- Tilt Brush – 29.99 US Dollars
- Final Approach + Raw Data – 56.98 US Dollars
In total, these five games were worth around 126.49 US Dollars (about 111 €). However, he did not purchase these games with dollars or euros, but paid with Bitcoin. He spent a total of 0.19272 Bitcoin for the five games.
The Reddit user explains that the amount of Bitcoin he paid for the games in 2016 would today be worth approximately 15,216 US Dollars – that’s about 13,355 euros. He therefore paid over 13,200 euros too much for the games, and the money is lost forever.
By the way, the user cannot bequeath the games, even though he paid a high price for them. You can find out more about this in the video:
How does this loss come about? The Reddit user shares in a comment under the post that he owned several thousand dollars in Bitcoin in 2016 and had nothing to spend the money on – the purchased Steam games were among his better buys. This is explained by the appreciation of Bitcoin’s value.
Bitcoin surged in value in 2016 and in the following years. While 1 Bitcoin could be purchased for under 300 euros in 2015, it was around 600 euros in the summer of 2016 (via finance.yahoo). The Reddit user likely had already made a profit at the time of purchasing the Steam games if he had invested in the years prior to 2016.
Since then, Bitcoin has risen even more significantly. Today, one Bitcoin (depending on fluctuation) is worth over 73,800 euros (as of April 14, 2025). Thus, the Reddit user lost several thousand euros when he paid for a few cheap games on Steam with Bitcoin.
Steam ends payment with Bitcoin
Can you still buy Steam games simply with Bitcoin? No, today you can no longer pay for games on Steam with Bitcoin. Valve has not offered this payment method since December 2017 because it is associated with high fees and influenced by significant price fluctuations (via Steam).
The situation of the Reddit user shows that Valve was right to abolish payment via Bitcoin due to strong price fluctuations. The money is gone, and the user himself can now only preserve his sense of humor. He joked about whether he might still be within the refund period.
Steam has very lenient refund policies overall, even for games that you only return to buy them again at a lower price: Valve explains whether Steam punishes you if you refund a game and rebuy it that you purchased just before a discount
