Report: PayPal is blocking Steam payments in most regions and for most currencies

Valve Software, owner of the popular Steam gaming platform for PC, supported several payment options. Steam users noticed recently that they can no longer pay using PayPal. Valve has now published information on its support website to explain what is happening.

In a new entry -- PayPal use on Steam is currently unavailable in my currency. Why? -- Valve explains that PayPal transactions on Steam are limited to EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD, and USD for the time being. Any other currency, big or small, is not accepted currently.

Valve claims that PayPal notified them that it would "immediately terminate" any transactions related to Steam that were not in one of the currencies mentioned. Neither Valve nor PayPal offered additional insights. It is unclear why PayPal is blocking transactions for the majority of currencies and regions at the time of writing.

In other words: PayPal users from Switzerland, Brazil, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, South Korea and dozens of other countries can't use PayPal anymore to buy digital games or assets on Steam.

Valve suggests that Steam users use other means in the meantime. This may include using a credit card, direct bank transfers, or adding funds to Steam Wallets using codes or physical gift cards.

You can select a payment method on the review and purchase page. There you may select one of the available payment methods. PayPal should not be available, if your country's currency is not one of the six that are still supported on Steam.

It is unclear at this point whether this is another fallout of Valve's recent change regarding adult content on Steam, which Valve claims came after it was pressured by payment processors. This happened last month, but the PayPal issue seemed to predate this by a few days at least.

This is not the first time that Steam users ran into troubles when trying to use PayPal to buy games. For a time, PayPal was not even supported on Steam.

There is a chance that things may change in the near future. Valve says that it is in contact with PayPal to find a solution for the issue.

What about you? Do you use Steam or other gaming stores to buy digital games? If so, what is your preferred payment method and why? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

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Posted Friday 15 August 2025 at 4:36 am AEST (my time).

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