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I buy lots of games during Steam sales. Oftentimes, they live in my library for months before I get around to playing them (curse you, Skyrim).

Just now, I installed Civilization 5. "Cool", I thought, "I don't remember buying Civ 5! It's like getting free games!"

Then I went to the Steam homepage and learned that Civ 5 is having a free weekend. Now I'm wondering whether I should start playing, or if I shouldn't bother because I'm going to be locked out on Sunday.

I can't remember if I bought a game on Steam. How can I find out whether I own it or if I only have access because of a free weekend?

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3 Answers 3

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For limited trials, next to the game's name in your library will be something like this:

[icon] [game] - [number] d

Limited time trial game

The number next to the d is the remaining number of days you have left in the free play trial.

In addition, there will also be a remaining time indicator on the game's page in your library.

enter image description here

If they are absent, then the game is yours.

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  • not nessarly true ive had games like Call of Duty show up saying just the game name and then dissappear (at the end of the weekend when they usualy do the free trials) without saying a time on them i dont know if this was a graphical bug or not though
    – zeke
    Jan 30, 2014 at 14:51
  • @zeke If it is a graphical bug then it's not really an exception. Do you have a screenshot or other documentation?
    – CyberSkull
    Jan 31, 2014 at 6:02
  • no i dont unfortunately but insted of the days it showed it was multiplayer version and the single player version but didnt show the time this was quite some time ago (about a year) too long for a screenshot in short
    – zeke
    Feb 3, 2014 at 14:59
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To add to CyberSkull's answer, you can also visit that game's store page, and if you own the game there will be a big green banner on the page which says 'You already own this game'

enter image description here

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    But doesn't this also show up if you don't own the game, but it is currently on Free-play mode?
    – Sentry
    Jun 8, 2013 at 16:35
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There's a very easy trick that works for pretty much any game or DLC on Steam (there are a few weird exceptions, e.g. in case you bought some pack or there has been some re-release or anything). You don't have to install the game or look it up in your Steam library first (which can be rather tedious for DLC heavy games).

Go to the Steam store page and add the game or DLC to your shopping cart. You don't have to try to buy the items (in fact, Steam won't allow that if you already have the items). But you don't have to go that far. Just have a closer look at the entries in the cart.

Those you already own are marked with a small note: Steam noting that you already own an item.

If you own part of a bundle, you'll see a similar text (with more details added on the bottom): Steam noting that you might own parts of a bundle.

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