The global version of Steam appears to be banned in China

Reliable Fortnite leaker and data miner Ricky Owens (aka iFireMonkey) first noticed the ban and tweeted out a screenshot of what appears to be Steam on a list of blocked websites in China. We tried to verify this for ourselves using Comparitech’s tool that checks whether a site is blocked in China. Upon entering “store.steampowered.com,” into the site, the tool indicates that Steam has been blocked in all parts of the country — as for “store.steamchina.com,” however, the tool says the domain is still available.

The ban leaves Chinese gamers with access to just Steam China, which first launched in February of this year. In addition to having far fewer games — with the only mainstream titles being Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) and Dota 2 — Steam China also comes without any community features, including the Steam Workshop, Community Market, discussion forums, and the activity section that shows any current broadcasts from users on Steam, recent screenshots from games, community-made game guides, and more.

The Verge reached out to Steam with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEr5yrn5VjsLC5jmtna2lfZn9wfpRoaWtwZWiCc3yOrKuemZ1itK27wZqjZpuYnruiecGapaedlA%3D%3D