How to host a Steam LAN party

Check LAN support before you plan around a game

Steam tags games with LAN PvP and LAN Co-op, and those tags are reliable as far as they go. What they don't tell you is whether the game needs an internet connection to start, which is the thing that actually catches people out.

A surprising number of LAN-tagged games still phone home once at launch — for a licence check, an account sign-in, or a launcher update. On a venue's flaky wifi, or somewhere with no connection at all, that's the difference between playing and not.

Test every game on your shortlist with the internet physically disconnected, on the machine you'll actually use. This is the single highest-value thing you can do in advance.

Everyone needs their own copy

LAN play almost never relaxes licensing. Each player needs to own the game on their own account, and Family Sharing won't cover a room full of people playing the same title simultaneously — a shared copy is still one concurrent player.

This is worth confirming early, because it's the constraint most likely to change which game you pick.

Pre-download everything

Assume the venue's connection is bad, because it usually is. Ten people downloading a 60GB game at the same time over one router is not a plan.

• Have everyone install and fully update their games days beforehand.
• Launch each game once at home, so first-run shader compilation and account setup are done.
• Ask people to disable automatic updates the day before. An update pushed the morning of your LAN can take a game offline for hours.
• If several machines need the same game, Steam's LAN download cache can copy between local PCs instead of re-downloading — worth enabling in advance.

How Steam's offline mode behaves

Steam can run offline, but it needs setting up while you still have a connection. Sign in online at least once on the machine, tick the option to remember your password, and then switch to offline mode deliberately rather than hoping it degrades gracefully when the connection drops.

Switching to offline mode after Steam has already lost connection is unreliable. Do it on purpose, in advance, and confirm your games launch.

Games that hold up well

Older titles tend to have the most complete LAN implementations, because LAN was standard before persistent online services took over. That's not nostalgia — it's that the feature was built when it mattered.

Look for games with dedicated server binaries or a built-in server browser rather than pure matchmaking. If the only way to find a game is a matchmaking queue, a private LAN match usually isn't possible.

The night itself

• Wired ethernet wherever possible. Ten machines on one access point is a bad time.
• Agree on a game order in advance so you're not spending twenty minutes deciding.
• Have a backup title everyone already owns and has already launched.
• Check firewalls — Windows firewall prompts on first launch will block LAN discovery until someone clicks allow on every machine.