Your Steam games stay on the account that bought them, even while you can't sign in. They don't disappear, and they can't be moved to a new account, so the only way to get your library back is to recover the original account through Steam Support. Wallet funds, inventory items and family-shared games each follow slightly different rules, which this article explains.
Your games are tied to the account, not to you or your PC
When you buy a game on Steam, what you get is the right to use it through your Steam account. The Steam Subscriber Agreement calls these purchases subscriptions and says they are not transferable. The same agreement describes the account itself as strictly personal: you may not sell it, charge others to use it or otherwise transfer it.
In practice this means three things:
- The library lives on Steam's side. Installed files on your PC are not the license. Reinstalling Windows or buying a new computer doesn't cost you anything, and losing access to the account doesn't delete what it owns.
- Nothing moves between accounts. Steam's help pages say accounts can't be merged, and games and CD keys are nontransferable between Steam accounts.
- The account name is permanent. Steam says the account name and SteamID can't be changed, even by Steam Support staff. Your profile name can change any time, which is why people sometimes search for the wrong name when they try to recover.
Why a new account is not a fix
It is tempting to make a fresh account and move on. The problem is that nothing comes with you. Games you bought, DLC, playtime, achievements and inventory items stay on the old account. Retail CD keys you already activated don't help either, because Steam says keys can't be reset or moved to another account.
There is a second reason to be careful. Steam says some restrictions can apply to every account a person owns, for example after account theft, payment fraud or buying and selling accounts. Using a second account to get around a restriction is not a fix. If a restriction was caused by someone who hijacked your account, the route is Steam Support. Recovering the original account keeps your purchase history intact, and that history is what Steam Support uses to confirm you are the owner.
The same logic explains why buying a ready-made account is a poor shortcut. Steam's position is that accounts can't be bought or sold, and a bought account can be reclaimed by its original owner or locked by Steam at any time. Our guide to the risks of buying a Steam account covers this in detail.
What recovery actually restores
Steam says you can always contact Steam Support for account recovery, even if someone changed the email address, password and phone number on the account. When recovery succeeds, you get back the account itself, and with it everything the account still holds: the game library, DLC, achievements, friends list and any remaining Wallet balance.
What recovery does not automatically undo is what happened while someone else had control (items are covered below). Purchases made by an intruder, trades they accepted and restrictions they triggered are handled separately, and some cannot be reversed. If your account was taken over, start with our walkthrough on what to do when your Steam account is hacked, which covers the official recovery route step by step.
Wallet funds and inventory items
Steam Wallet
Wallet money is part of the account, just like games. Under the Subscriber Agreement, Wallet funds are non-transferable, have no cash value and are generally non-refundable. They can't be sent to a new account or paid out to you. If the balance is still there when you recover access, it is still yours to spend. If someone spent it while they had control, contact Steam Support about the unauthorized purchases rather than trying to recover the money another way.
Steam also warns that some malware waits until an account has Wallet funds before it acts. That is one reason not to top up a Wallet on a PC you suspect is compromised.
Inventory items
Tradable items such as in-game cosmetics sit in the account's inventory. As long as they are still there, recovery brings them back with the account. Items that an intruder traded or sold are a different matter: Steam states that its support team does not restore items that have left an account, for any reason. Anyone offering to "get your skins back" for a fee is promising something Steam itself says it does not do.
Family-shared games and Steam Families
Steam Families lets household members share their libraries, but ownership stays with the person who bought each game. That has two consequences when an account is lost:
- If you lose your account, the games you bought stay with it. Your family membership is tied to the account too, so check Family Management once you are back in. You can't play your own games or the family's shared games until you sign in again.
- If a family member loses theirs, the games they own remain on their account. Other members don't gain ownership, and nothing is copied to them.
An adult can recover a child's account from Family Management once the child has been a member for 30 days; cooldowns, roles and the shared-game ban risk are in our guide to Steam Families and parental controls.
What to do next
- Don't create a replacement account to get your games back. Nothing transfers, and it can complicate things.
- Secure the email linked to Steam first, then use Steam's official sign-in help at help.steampowered.com.
- Gather proof of ownership (payment details used on the account or activated retail keys). See how to prove you own a Steam account. Never share your password or Steam Guard codes with anyone, including people claiming to be support.
- If the account was taken over, follow the official recovery route in the hacked-account walkthrough linked above.
Steam's policies change over time, so check the current Steam Support pages for the latest wording before you act.