The largest Steam Next Fest in the event's history kicked off on June 15, 2026, dropping a staggering roughly 4,931 free demos onto the storefront in a single week. That total blows past February's previous record of around 3,500 demos, and the festival runs until June 22 — timed to roll straight into the Steam Summer Sale.
With nearly five thousand demos to wade through, the hard part is knowing where to start. A handful of standouts are already pulling the biggest crowds.
Tears of Metal leads the pack
Tears of Metal, a medieval hack-and-slash co-op roguelike from Paper Cult — the studio behind the stylish Bloodroots — is among the most talked-about demos of the fest. You carve through hordes of enemies to reclaim your island, backed by a formidable Scottish battalion, in the kind of crunchy, build-driven action that tends to eat entire evenings.
It is joined at the top of the bill by two other heavy hitters. Among Us Story: On Guard is Innersloth's first single-player Among Us game, a narrative whodunnit that launched its demo on the series' eighth anniversary. And EMPULSE, the Titanfall-inspired 6v6 movement shooter from Splitgate studio 1047 Games, is using its demo to build momentum ahead of a June 24 Early Access launch.
A returning favourite and thousands more
Also worth a look is Lootbound, which proved itself at February's Next Fest with around 34,000 demo activations and is back for another round. Beyond the marquee names, the roughly 4,900 other demos span every genre imaginable — automation sims, roguelites, cozy builders, horror, you name it — making this the deepest single discovery window Steam has ever offered.
Demos are free and playable through June 22. Wishlisting the ones you enjoy is the easiest way to get a launch-day reminder, and with the Steam Summer Sale waiting on the other side of the festival, it is a good week to build out a backlog.
