How to Fish discounts: what Steam rules actually allow
Contents
How to Fish is at full price right now: 7.99 dollars, zero discount. The launch discount has ended. We cannot close the question of when the next one lands — nobody has announced it. But Valve publishes its discount rules for developers, and those show when a discount even becomes possible.
What already happened
On release day, 20 August 2026, the studio announced a 38 percent launch discount for one week. That is a classic Launch Discount — a separate discount type Steam only lets you configure before release, never after.
Right now the discount field reads zero in every region we checked.
The three rules that apply here
1. Release cooldown — 30 days. A game cannot be discounted for 30 days after it comes out. The one exception is that same launch discount, and it has to be set up in advance.
2. Discount cooldown — 30 days. A game cannot be discounted within 30 days of another discount. Valve’s documentation is blunt about the related price-increase cooldown: “There are no exceptions to this rule” — and the same 30-day rhythm governs the gap between discounts.
3. Seasonal sales are the exception. The Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring sales do not count towards the cooldown. But a game still sitting on a 30-day release cooldown cannot join a seasonal sale anyway.
When a discount becomes possible
Counting from the facts:
| Constraint | Counted from | Clears around |
|---|---|---|
| Release cooldown | 20 August 2026 | roughly 19 September 2026 |
| Post-launch-discount cooldown | the discount ran a week from 20 August | 19-26 September 2026 |
So the earliest window is the second half of September 2026.
Why a range and not a date: the documentation does not spell out whether the 30 days run from the start or the end of the previous discount. From the start it lands on 19 September; from the end, around the 26th. We are not going to invent a precise date.
The limits of a standard discount
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum discount | 10% |
| Maximum discount | 95% |
| Duration | 1 to 14 days |
| Launch discount cap | 40% |
| Weeklong Deals | start every Monday |
Separately, Valve advises developers against rushing into a deep discount right after release: in their wording, a 50 or 75 percent cut weeks after launch sends customers a bad message. Valve’s own suggestion for a launch discount is 10-15 percent; the studio went with 38.
What we are not claiming
This is not an announcement. The studio has announced no future discount. Everything above is arithmetic on Steam’s public rules, not a developer plan.
Rules can change. We read Valve’s documentation on 31 August 2026. The cooldown length itself has already changed once — from 28 days to 30, as of 1 January 2023.
One for collectors of irony: the worked examples in Valve’s official discount documentation are built around a fictional fishing game.
Frequently asked questions
Is How to Fish on sale right now?
No. As of 31 August 2026 the discount is zero in all twelve regions we checked.
Was there a launch discount?
Yes. On release day the studio announced a 38 percent launch discount for one week. It has already ended.
When is the next discount?
Nobody has announced a date. Under Steam's rules it becomes possible no earlier than the second half of September 2026.
What is the maximum discount on Steam?
95 percent for a standard discount and 40 percent for a launch discount. The minimum is 10 percent.