How to Make Your Steam Profile Look Good: Showcases, Backgrounds and Artwork

1. Level first: Steam level 10 for showcases

Profile showcases (sections such as the artwork showcase, the game showcase or the badge showcase) unlock when your Steam level reaches 10, and more showcase slots open as your level goes up. You can see your level on your profile page.

The best-known way to level up is crafting badges. Once you complete a set of a game's trading cards you can craft that game's badge; badges from Steam events count towards your level too.

2. How to change your profile background and where to get one

You change the background from the Edit Profile screen on your profile. Only backgrounds in your inventory are listed there, so you first need to own one.

There are three ways to get a background: buy it in the Steam Points Shop with Steam Points (animated backgrounds are there too), receive it as one of the random rewards when you craft a badge, or buy it on the Community Market with money from your Steam Wallet.

3. Points Shop: avatar frames, mini profiles and themes

Items in the Steam Points Shop are bought with Steam Points, not money. You earn points from your purchases on Steam and from awards other people give you.

The ones used most on profiles are the avatar frame that sits around your avatar, animated avatars, the mini profile that opens when someone hovers over your name in their friends list, and the profile theme that changes your profile's colours. Once you own an item, you select it in the matching section of Edit Profile.

4. Uploading artwork and adding an artwork showcase

You first need to upload the image you want to show as artwork. From the Artwork section of your profile, open the upload page, pick the file and give it a title. For other people to see it, both the artwork and your profile need to be set to public.

Then go to the showcase section of Edit Profile, choose the Artwork Showcase or the Featured Artwork Showcase and place the artwork you uploaded into its slots. If you have more than one showcase slot, you can change their order there as well.

5. Do GIFs move on your profile?

A GIF uploaded as artwork plays on your profile once it is placed in a showcase; most animated Steam profiles are built this way.

Your profile picture (avatar) is different: images you upload as an avatar stay still. If you want an animated avatar, you need to pick one of the animated avatars in the Points Shop.

6. Keep your account safe

None of the steps above requires giving anyone your password or your Steam Guard code. Do not trust messages that ask for your password using a profile design, showcase or giveaway as an excuse, or that ask you to log in on a page that only looks like Steam; always log in from the Steam app or from a page whose address bar shows steampowered.com or steamcommunity.com.

Let us make the design

We make ready-made and custom Steam profile designs with a showcase poster, an animated GIF, an avatar and a setup guide; a custom design starts from $5. You do the setup from your own account and we never ask for your password.