How To Sort Steam Games By Play Time

To learn how to sort steam games by play time, you need to open your Steam client, navigate to your Library, click the Sort by dropdown menu above your game list, and select Playtime. This guide helps you organize your gaming library using the latest 2026 user interface features, making it easy to see exactly where your hours go.

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How to Sort Your Steam Library by Hours Played

In order to sort your Steam library by hours played, you must use the library filtering options. The updated 2026 layout makes it incredibly simple to find out which games have consumed most of your time.

Follow these steps if you want to know how to sort steam library by play time on your PC or Mac:

Launch the Steam client on your computer and log into your account.
Click on the Library tab located at the top of the window.
Look for the sort icon just above your list of games on the left side.
Click the menu and select Playtime from the list of options.

Using the steam sort by hours played feature instantly rearranges your list, putting the games you play the most at the top. If you want to sort steam library by hours played in reverse order, simply click the sort icon again to flip the arrow. Now that you have your playtime sorted, you might also want to track when you actually bought these games.

How to Sort Steam Games by Purchase Date

To sort Steam games by purchase date, you need to check your Steam account purchase history, as the default library only sorts by Date Added to Library. There is a difference between the release date of a game, the date you activated a key to add it to your library, and the exact day you handed over your money.

If you want a true steam sort games by purchase date view, follow these steps:

Click on your profile name in the top right corner of the client.
Select Account details from the dropdown menu.
Click on View purchase history under the Store & Purchase History section.

This screen gives you a chronological list of every transaction you have made. While looking at your own playtime and purchases is great, comparing it to the community is also helpful.

How to Check Steam Game Average Play Time

Checking a steam game average play time requires using the community hub or third-party tracking websites. The platform natively tracks your personal hours, but finding the average playtime for a game to see how long it takes to beat requires external tools.

If you want to look at steam games by playtime across the entire player base in 2026, gamers rely on a few specific resources:

HowLongToBeat: This site lets you search for any title to see the average hours required to finish the main story, side quests, or a full completionist run.
SteamSpy: A data-gathering tool that estimates the median playtime across thousands of user profiles.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Here are some common questions you might have about sorting your Steam library.

Can you sort Steam games by play time on the mobile app?

Yes, you can sort games by play time on the 2026 mobile app. To do this, open the app, tap the Library tab at the bottom of your screen, tap the Filters icon, and select Playtime.

Does Steam track offline playtime accurately?

Yes, Steam tracks offline playtime by locally storing your session data. It syncs the hours played once your PC or Steam Deck reconnects to the internet and updates your profile statistics.

Why is my Steam playtime not updating?

Your playtime might not be updating due to a server sync delay or because you have been playing in a disconnected offline state for too long. A fast fix is to completely close and restart the client to force a server synchronization.