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How to Hide Recent Activity on Steam: Complete Privacy Guide (2026)
If you want to know how to hide recent activity on steam, you need to adjust your profile's privacy settings or mark specific games as private. Managing your gaming privacy is simple in 2026, and learning how to hide recent activity on steam only takes a few short clicks. You can completely lock down your profile, keep your gameplay hidden from your friends list, or single out a specific game you do not want anyone to see. This guide will walk you through exactly how to control your game history and keep your playtime to yourself.
What Is Steam Recent Activity?
Steam recent activity is a section on your public profile that displays the last three games you played, along with your total playtime over the past two weeks.
This automated tracker updates every time you launch a game. While it is great for showing off your current gaming obsession, it can also broadcast information you would rather keep private. Whether you are playing a secret game you do not want to explain, or you simply prefer keeping your gaming habits to yourself, you will likely want to learn how to hide this tracker. Thankfully, adjusting your profile to hide this information is a very straightforward process.
How to Hide Recent Activity on Steam Profile
To understand how to hide recent activity on steam profile pages, you just need to know where the modern privacy toggles are located. When you use this method, you hide your activity from anyone visiting your main profile page.
To change your profile privacy settings, follow these simple steps:
Open your client and click on your profile name at the top right corner.
Select View my profile from the drop-down menu.
Click the Edit Profile button located on the right side of your profile page.
Navigate to the Privacy Settings tab on the left-hand menu.
Hiding Gameplay Activity From Friends
If you are wondering how to hide recent activity on steam from friends, or generally how to hide your activity on steam from friends, the Privacy Settings page is exactly where you do it.
Under the Privacy Settings tab, look for the Game details section. By default, this might be set to Public. To hide your recent activity, change this setting to either Private or Friends Only. Setting it to Private ensures no one can see what you have been playing. As an added bonus, making your game details private will also hide your in-game status from your friends list, meaning no one will get a pop-up notification when you launch a game.
Hiding Specific Games Using the "Mark as Private" Feature
Sometimes you do not want to hide your entire profile, but you do have one specific title you want to keep quiet. Thanks to updates leading into 2026, you can easily use the per-game privacy feature.
To do this, go to your Library and find the game you want to hide. Right-click the game title, hover over Manage, and click Mark as Private. This stops the specific game from showing up in your recent activity or anywhere else on your public profile, allowing you to play it in secret while keeping the rest of your account history public.
How to Hide Recent Activity on Steam for Myself
You might be searching for how to hide recent activity on steam for myself, hoping to clean up your own view without changing what others see. Unfortunately, the platform does not have a native toggle to hide recent activity only from your own personal view while keeping it public for everyone else.
If you are tired of looking at certain games on your own screen, you have a couple of alternatives. You can collapse the recent activity shelf directly on your Library home page so it no longer takes up space. If you never want to see a specific game on your screen ever again, your only option is to permanently remove the game from your account entirely.
How to Delete or Remove Recent Activity on Steam
If you want to remove recent activity rather than just hide it, you have a few handy workarounds. Knowing how to delete recent activity on steam or how to remove recent activity on steam profile pages usually comes down to pushing the unwanted game out of the tracker.
The Launch 3 Games Trick: If you search for steam hide recent activity reddit, you will find this highly popular workaround. Since the recent activity tracker only shows the last three games played, you can simply launch three different, non-embarrassing games for a few seconds each. This will push the unwanted game out of the top three slots, effectively removing it from your recent list.
Removing the game from your account: If you truly want the activity wiped and the game gone forever, you can permanently delete it. Go to the Help menu, click Steam Support, select the game, and choose the option to permanently remove the game from your account.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does appearing offline hide my recent activity on Steam?
No. Appearing offline or invisible only hides your current real-time status from your friends list. Your played games and total hours will still update on your profile's recent activity unless you actually change your privacy settings.
Can I clear my Steam activity cache to delete history?
No. Clearing your local download cache or web browser cache does not delete your recent activity. This playtime data is stored securely on the platform's servers, not locally on your computer.
Will hiding my activity on Steam affect my achievements?
No. Earning achievements will still function normally while you play. However, if your game details are set to private, other users will simply not be able to see the achievements you have unlocked when they look at your profile.