this post was submitted on 12 Nov 2025
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Not on games per se but almost on mods. Yes, there are other platforms, but the majory and newest are on Workshop. And they make it hard to download them, if you don't own the game on Steam (and Valve has it in their terms that they own the mods hosted on Workshop).
So one could argue that they use the indirect peer-pressure approach to market dominance, similiar to Google on Android.
I wouldn't complain if they just had a "Download" button on their web version. But they don't, you have to use the finicky
steamcmdintended for server administration.I do a fair bit of modding, and actually almost never interact with steam workshop. Nexus mods, thunderstore and r2modman, or something game specific like Everest (Celeste) or Lumafly mod manager (Hollow Knight). Not to mention modding like ReShade or OptiScaler, or custom proton versions with extra features.
I tend to associate Steam Workshop with very simple mods, like skin swaps, or mods with dedicated game support, like Rivals of Aether characters. Most of the more serious game modifications are hosted elsewhere, at least in my experience, and I usually forget to even bother checking what steam has available.
That said, I agree that an easier download button for using those mods on other platforms would be a good feature.
This. Steam Workshop I only use for my basic Witcher 3 mods being removing weight limits for inventory and stuff like horse sprinting stamina. I think it's been over a year since witcher 3 workshop launched. There's barely anything on there. Everything is on Nexus. All the ultra wide monitor support mods I grab off codeberg, GitHub, gitlab, or Nexus. I remember all the half life mods I used to get off modDB. Steam workshop is a far distant second to Nexus for mods for me. Close to GitHub for how much I use to download mods from
Keeping in mind Valve is a for profit company. Why would they host anything that adds extra bandwith cost and does not increase revenue on their platform? Alternative "appstores" on Android are not hosted by Google, as far as I know.
I mean... There are so many games that use Nexus as their preferred platform. And for older games Mod.db is still king.