This guide is to help new users do what they can to boost their chances in winning a giveaway on this site. There are several different kinds of giveaways you can enter, and I will be listing each of them, as well as how to get into each of them.

Chances of winning

When entering giveaways, each user will have an equal chance to get the prize. This works through simple maths. The number of prizes divided by the number of entries will give you the chance you will win the game. If there is 1 prize and 2 entries, you will have a 50% chance to win that giveaway. If there is 1 prize and 5000 entries, you have 0.02% chances of winning, which is very unlikely. This guide will hopefully get you towards the giveaways with higher odds.

Comments have no direct effect on your chances of winning a giveaway. However, a active user is more likely to get into good groups and private giveaways, so don't let that stop you from posting in giveaways and on the forum.

Estimated Wins

This is a number calculated by the chance you had of winning each giveaway you have entered. If you entered a giveaway with a 50% chance of winning, your Estimated Wins will increase by 0.5, no matter if you won or lost. This number is no indication that you should have won that many games, it is simply to allow you to see if you are more or less lucky than what the odds allow.

Giveaway types

Public giveaways

These are the most common giveaways on the site, open to everybody. Joining the site and having available points to enter are all that are required to enter these. Because of this, you will find that the entry count is rather high, often over 1000 users, leaving you with very little chance of winning such. With these as your only option, you will be looking at a long wait before you see a win.

Contributor giveaways

This is another common giveaway type on the site, and chances can vary depending on the amount set by the giveaway creator. Each of these giveaways require that you have successfully given away games on this site. Values set by the creator can range from 1 cent to $5000. While these will have higher chances than public giveaways, the lower the required entry value is, the more people will be entering, as it is rather easy to hit $30 with bundle games (for more on bundle games and their max contribution values, please read the FAQ). Entry values beyond $30 will see entries drop to hundreds with a few hundred dollars, while the max of $5000 will see only a handful of entries.

As well as being set on public giveaways, contribution requirements can also be enabled on both Group and Private giveaways, which will follow.

Public group giveaways

Group giveaways are only open to users in a certain Steam group. Public groups are open to everyone, so won't boost your chances greatly, but they are still an option. I recommend joining the official SteamGifts group at least.

Private group giveaways

These groups are much more difficult to join, as they will often have certain requirements you must meet, however they will also have high odds compared to public giveaways. Common requirements to join such groups include

• Being active in the SteamGifts forums
• Having a certain amount of contribution value
• Making regular giveaways within the group

Private giveaways

These are the final type of giveaways, where entry is limited only to those who are given access to the link. Creators might only share the link with friends, dump them in group chats or even here in the forums. Such links might be left in a topic as a regular link for all forum users, be hidden somewhere in a post, or shown at the end of a puzzle created by the gifter. The harder it is to access, the higher your chances in these giveaways.

Puzzle giveaways

Written by NB264, stolen by me

Puzzle giveaways are similar to Private giveaways, but more fun because you have to solve a puzzle in order to find a hidden page, so you could enter the giveaway. The rules of this website are that you have to do it alone - you are not allowed to ask for tips, help from others (here OR anywhere else) or share the answers and links to giveaway pages with others once you solve the puzzle. Break the rules and your account can be suspended.

Any reference to SteamGifts Premium by other users is just a poor joke, and not enjoyed by the support members. Please do not go around asking how to get it, as it does not exist.

I hope this simple guide will be of use to new users, and that it will help lessen the number of topics about not winning. Because thousands of site users fail to win anything every single day.

Hopefully, this guide helps you see the Green Bar of Winning™ soon

If you know something this guide should include, be sure to post it in the comments and I'll edit the opening post.