Over the years I’ve found myself with an ever growing library of games on Steam. When Valve revamped their Steam library back in late 2019 they added dynamic collections on top of their static collections. There still isn’t a way to have logical functions like “and” and “or”, but there’s now more things to filter by (Steam Deck compatibility, games both you and a friend own, and if games work with Remote Play Together). It’s been an invaluable tool to help filter my library. Here are some of the (silly) ways I use it.

What is a Steam library collection?

It’s a way for you to organize your Steam library into custom collections (i.e. categories) of your choosing.

Whenever you click on a game in your library, in the top right of the game’s banner you can see all the collections it’s in. Which is very helpful if you make certain collections like I mention below.

all collections a game is in

And you don’t need a huge backlog of games to use collections either!

How to create a Steam library collection

First off, this is how to make a new collection. In the Steam desktop app, hover over the “Library” tab, and you’ll see a few options, namely “Home”, “Collections”, and “Downloads”. Click on “Collections” and you’ll see all collections you have created so far, and a button to create a new one. Click the “Create a new collection” button and you’ll be greeted with a popup. Here you can choose if you’d like to create a static collection (you need to add games to it manually) or a dynamic collection (you enter in the criteria and Steam auto-adds games that match).

Static collection: after you create one, you can add games to it either by:

  • dragging and dropping games into it
  • or by right-clicking on a game in the list and adding it to any static collection you’ve made

Dynamic collection: after you create one, you can edit the filters/criteria. And if you don’t like that a certain game has been added, you can remove it from appearing in the collection.

a dynamic collection with no filters selected

Ideas for static collections

  • Games that have their quirks. If I find a game can’t alt-tab without crashing (Caesar 3), or can only be played when your monitor is set to 60hz (Minit), I make a new collection for each quirk and add the game to it. So if/when I ever go back to the game, I don’t have to rediscover these issues.
  • Did I play this with a controller, or mouse/keyboard? I have a few collections that are just which hardware I used to play each game. Sometimes if I take a year or more break from playing a game (looking at you Hitman) I can’t remember if I played it with a controller or mouse/keyboard. But having this collection is helpful so I end up using the same device so (most of) my muscle memory comes back. These are the collections I have:
    • controller - DS4
    • controller - xbox
    • controller - mouse/keyboard
    • controller - mouse
    • controller - keyboard
  • Games you’ve completed. You can decide if that means a game you are likely not to revisit again, or games where you’ve just completed the main story.
  • Games you would like to 100%. You can decide if that means completing all in-game objectives/achievements, or just completing all Steam achievements.
  • Games that are endless. Games that don’t really have an end or that I can keep going back to, I put into this collection.
  • Games that work with your VR headset. I have a Windows Mixed Reality headset and some games don’t have native support for it. So any games I’ve found that worked on the headset, I’ve added to a collection.

Ideas for dynamic collections

  • Games both you and your Steam friend own. Your friend might need their privacy settings for “Game details” set to either Public or Friends Only for this to work, but it’s a great way to quickly see what games you both own. Especially if you also filter by co-op or multiplayer games.
  • Games that work with Remote Play Together. This is hands down my favourite feature. I love being able to play any local co-op game over the internet with friends, with near zero lag on some games (granted if you have a decent internet connection and good hardware). So naturally I have a dynamic collection so I can see what games I can play with friends. My current favourites are PlateUp!, Travellers Rest, and The Skywalker Saga.
  • Unplayed games. Great for finding the next game to play in your backlog (or understand how large your backlog really is).
  • Steam Deck verified games. If you own a Steam Deck, this is a great filter to have. You can filter by:
    • games that are “Steam Deck verified” (meaning the game works out of the box)
    • or “verified and playable” (shows all verified games, but playable games might need some tinkering)
    • or “verified and playable and untested” (shows all the verified and playable games, but also games that are untested on Steam Deck)
  • Games with the VR tag. If you happen to have a VR headset and want to see if you already own games with VR support, this is the filter for you. Games like Phasmophobia, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and Subnautica have VR compatibility shipped along with the base game. Unlike some other games, looking at you Skyrim.