Privacy can be very important to some Steam users, who might see the platform’s recent activity section as a breach of it. This section shows user statistics such as the last game you played, the amount of time you’ve spent playing it over the past two weeks, your achievements, reviews you’ve submitted, and more.
This makes it easy to see why those concerned about privacy might want to hide this section from other users. However, Steam settings can be difficult to navigate for some, which for these users can be a real cause for concern.
How Can You Hide Recent Activity On Your Steam Profile
There are actually 3 reliable methods to hide your recent activity on steam, all of which serve slightly different purposes. We will be discussing all 3 alongside their different functions here fully.
Method 1: Hide It Using Steam’s In-Built Privacy Settings
A relatively recent update helped simplify Steam’s privacy settings. This is the most viable method for people who want a more permanent solution, as it hides your activity for every game as long as you keep the setting unchanged.
- Open Steam, then navigate to the tab under your username and click Activity
- From the drawer of options, you’ll be met with here, select Edit my Profile
- Finally, move over to the Privacy Settings tab and go to game details. Here, change Game details from Public or Friends Only to Private.
This makes it so that your account can stay public, but your recent activity and overall game activity become hidden.
Alternatively, you can also make your account completely private from the same page, by going to My Profile and changing it from Public or Friends Only to Private. This however is a more drastic approach as it does more than just hide your recent activity.
Method 2: Replace The Game You Want To Hide
As you know, Steam’s recent activity section covers details on the last three games you played. This method is very simple, in that it is simply the act of replacing games whose activity you want to hide with those that you don’t mind others seeing.
- Open Steam and log in to your account
- Start a game whose activity you don’t mind showing your friends
- Wait a minute before closing, then repeat this process 2 more times for different games.
This is a useful trick if you want to hide certain games from your recent activity but do not want to pull the plug on the settings altogether.
Method 3: Play Free Watchable Episode
This method sounds confusing when you first hear the name. However, it is fully viable and serves a purpose that both the other 2 methods do not. The steps are simple.
- Open Steam and search for any free watchable episode, for the sake of this tutorial we’ll use Making of Furi
- Open Making of Furi, then click on Watch for the first free episode
- Close the window for the episode as soon as it appears
- Repeat this short process for 2 more episodes, then your Recent Activity will be cleared
There is a clear logic behind this method. When you click watch for any watchable episode of Steam, the client detects that you are engaging in a new activity. But when you immediately close the window, it fails to register the activity fully, replacing one of the 3 games in your recent activity with a blank field.
Repeating this action thrice does this for all 3 of your games in the recent activity section, making this method unique in that it only temporarily deletes your activity, and does not require you to change any settings.
The next time you start a game, your recent activity tab will work just as usual, though you can repeat this process any amount of times you want.
Should You Make Your Steam Account Private
Making your Steam account private might be something you would consider if you’re someone who is regularly concerned about their privacy. But this is actually a more drastic move than it seems, so you might want to make certain aspects of your account private than throw the kitchen sink at the problem.
The most obvious part of what this change does is make your game details private. It makes it so that no one can see your owned games or playtime, as well as your achievement, wishlisted games, and other such details. Access to things on your profile such as your item inventory will also be restricted for other users upon making this change.
Steam will also no longer let your friends know when you go online if you choose to make your account private. They will also no longer be able to leave comments on your profile for that matter.
You should keep these things in mind and consider them when deciding how exactly you want to curate your privacy on the platform.
Wrapping Up
Privacy when it comes to their activity is important to many steam users, and they have 3 different options to safeguard it. Changing their recent activity to private is a more permanent solution, similar to choosing to change settings for specific games.
The free watchable episodes method is a temporary fix, and therefore the ideal solution for users that just want to delete certain parts of their activity.
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