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Valve implemented age verification for Australian Steam users earlier this month, which was inevitable: Australian law demands it. Unfortunately, Valve has opted for the most brute force, user-negligent approach possible. To buy R18+ games on Steam in Australia—to even access their store pages—you need to provide a credit card.
The problem being that most Australians don’t use credit cards. This study of consumer payment behaviour by the Reserve Bank of Australia bears this out: the share of payments made in Australia with credit or card charges in 2025 was 23% (versus debit cards at 49%).
This is in stark contrast with the US where, according to Bankrate, 74% of adults own a credit card (and nearly half of those are in debt!).
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I’m not sure if Valve did its research: perhaps it did and it doesn’t care. Rather than create the infrastructure to cope with age verification on Steam, or pay a contractor to do it, it’s probably easier for Valve to let Australian customers be angry about it. I’ve received emails from Australian banks flummoxed by the sudden rush of inbound customer calls about this policy. One asked me, rather desperately: has Valve hinted at the possibility of other verification methods? (Do marmots eat Coco Pops for breakfast? Valve won’t hint: one day it’ll just suddenly happen.)
I’ve reached out to Valve on this matter but not heard back. So what to do in the meantime? The only option you really have at the moment is to take your business elsewhere, or buy Steam codes from legitimate third-party sellers.
But how do other shopfronts handle age verification? I offer the below advice not to aide young’uns in their desire to play Doom Eternal, but to help actual adults who don’t have a credit card. And, of course, the alternatives below are not guaranteed to stock all R18+ games, with GTA 5 being an especially notable example.
Let’s have a look:
No credit card required PC gaming shopfronts
No credit card required PC gaming key sellers
At time of writing, third-party key sellers Fanatical and Green Man Gaming don’t prompt Australians to prove their age when purchasing R18+ games. That’s nice, but whether Fanatical or Green Man Gaming are actually selling the R18+ games you want is another matter: both are selling, for example, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, but neither sell Grand Theft Auto 5.
Can I use a VPN to buy R18+ games on Steam?
Valve’s subscriber agreement is very clear about this: using a VPN to buy R18+ games in Australia without verifying your age can result in account termination.
“You agree that you will not use IP proxying or other methods to disguise the place of your residence, whether to circumvent geographical restrictions on game content, to order or purchase at pricing not applicable to your geography, or for any other purpose,” the agreement reads.
“If you do this, Valve may terminate your access to your Account.”
