Steam is a great way to download and play games on your Mac. However, when you’ve finished your games and you don’t think you’ll use this app anymore, it’s a good idea to uninstall Steam from your Mac.
Deleting Steam keeps your apps list uncluttered, plus it will free up quite a lot of space on your hard drive.
There are various ways to uninstall Steam as well as remove games from Steam without actually uninstalling the app. We’ll take a look at all the options available to you.
How to Uninstall Steam Games on a Mac Without Removing Steam
If you’ve finished a game installed via Steam and you won’t be playing that game anytime soon, you can easily remove the game itself without having to uninstall Steam completely.
Removing the game lets you clear the storage that game has been occupying in order to make room for other games.
Deleting just a game with uninstalling Steam is probably your best option more often than not. Here’s how you delete a game via the Steam app:
- Launch Steam on your Mac and ensure you’re logged into your account.
- Click the Library option at the top.
- Expand All on the left to view all your games, and then click the game you want to uninstall from your Mac.
- On the game screen, click the cog icon on the right and select Manage > Uninstall. You can also right-click the game name, then select the same options.
- You’ll get a prompt asking if you really want to remove the game. Click Uninstall to confirm your action and remove the game.
Steam will uninstall the selected game.
Your game will still appear in your library even if it’s been deleted. When you want to replay the game, you can simply download it again.
How to Uninstall Steam on a Mac
If you don’t want to use Steam or any of its games anymore, you can remove the Steam app like you remove any other app from your Mac.
This deletes Steam, all of the data associated with it, and all your downloaded games.
There are many reasons you’d want to do this, with low storage on your Mac being the main reason. Regardless, you’ll need to go through two separate processes to get rid of Steam for good.
1. Delete the Steam App From Your Mac
The first thing you need to do is to remove the Steam app from your Mac:
- If Steam is open, close it by clicking the Steam > Quit Steam option at the top.
- Open the Applications folder using the Finder on your Mac.
- Find Steam in the folder, right-click on it, and select Move to Trash.
2. Remove the Leftover Steam Files From Your Mac
When you uninstall Steam from your Mac, the app leaves behind some of its files. You need to clear these leftover files by yourself, as Steam won’t do that for you, unfortunately.
You can delete Steam’s leftover files using your file manager, and here we show how you do that:
- Open a Finder window, click Go at the top, and select Go to Folder.
- Type the following in the box on your screen and hit Enter: ~/Library/Application Support
- Find the folder named Steam, right-click on this folder, and select Move to Trash.
This deletes all Steam files as well as your downloaded games.
If you want to retain your downloaded games, then delete everything in the Steam folder except for SteamApps. This folder has all your downloaded games, and not deleting it will preserve your games.
Do You Need Steam Installed to Play Your Games?
If Steam is causing issues on your Mac, or you don’t like it for some reason, you’re probably wondering if you can play Steam games without having the Steam app itself.
A straightforward answer to that question is no. You can’t play Steam games without having Steam installed on your Mac.
All your games are routed through Steam and you need this app to be able to play your downloaded Steam games.
How to Uninstall Steam Games on a Mac Without Steam
What if you or someone else has uninstalled Steam on your Mac but your games are still there? Is there a way to uninstall Steam games without Steam?
Luckily, there is.
You can indeed delete Steam games without having the Steam app installed on your Mac. This is possible because the app stores your games in their own independent folders.
This way, you can delete the game folders and your games will be gone. Here’s how you do that:
- Launch a Finder window, hold down the Option key, click the Go menu at the top, and select Library.
- Open the Application Support folder followed by Steam.
- Access the steamapps folder and then open common.
- You should see a folder for each of your games. Right-click the game folder you want to get rid of, and select Move to Trash.
Don’t Forget to Empty the Trash
No matter what files you delete using the above procedure, make sure you empty the Trash after each deletion procedure (here’s what to do if you can’t empty the Trash on macOS).
This is to ensure your files are gone for good, and that nobody can restore them at a later time.
How to Delete a Steam Account?
Simply uninstalling Steam on your Mac won’t delete your Steam account. There’s an account deletion process that you need to go through to get your account removed with this service.
Unlike most other account deletion methods, you can’t simply go into your account settings and click an option to delete your account. Steam actually asks that you get in touch with the Steam support team and request them to remove your account.
When you place an account deletion request with their team, your account is blocked from making further purchases for 30 days. After that, your account gets deleted.
Uninstalling Steam When You Don’t Need It on Your Mac
You don’t need to keep Steam if you don’t use it on your Mac machine. There are various ways to remove Steam games, as well as uninstall Steam itself from your Mac. Use one of the ways to do that and make room for other content on your computer.
Steam isn’t the only game distribution service out there. If you aren’t happy with it, you might want to consider jumping onto another similar service.