Steam Next Fest is back this week. Valve's October 2026 edition starts Monday, October 19 at 10:00 AM Pacific (1:00 PM Eastern) and wraps up on October 26 at the same time.
If you haven't jumped into one before, Next Fest is a week where you can try free demos of games that haven't come out yet, chat with developers, watch developer livestreams and learn about what's coming to Steam. Every game in the event needs a public, playable demo, and it has to release after the fest ends on October 26, so this is all upcoming stuff rather than old games on sale.
A few things have changed over the last couple of years. Valve dropped the official Next Fest livestream back with the October 2024 edition, developer livestreams moved to their own tab, and the event page is laid out differently than the old genre tabs. On October 26, Valve also puts up a Wrap-Up page featuring the games with the most played demos of the fest, which is a handy list if you miss the week.
According to Valve's Steamworks page, the next Next Fest after this one is planned for February 2027.
My take: Free demos are a really easy way to see how an upcoming game runs on a handheld before spending anything. I'd check the Steam Deck compatibility rating on each store page first, then load up a few demos on the Deck, Ally or Legion Go and see how they hold up.