Steam in Vietnam is again at the center of block reports. Since October 2, 2026, players say access has tightened: beyond the store and payments, downloads, updates, community pages and Steam Cloud sync are also failing on several connections. There is no official notice of a new total ban.
What is being reported
Korean outlet Inven, citing Vietnamese site GameK, described on October 3 widespread failures to log in or open the store. Some users said even downloading updates had stopped. Local community posts from October 2 mention unavailable store, community, downloads and cloud. Some regained access with a VPN.
An FPT subscriber said switching DNS to Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) did not restore downloads and updates. Other customers on the same network said Steam still worked, which points to differences by region and provider, not a uniform cut.
What was already blocked
This is not the first restriction. In May 2024, Vietnamese authorities confirmed blocking part of Steam. Le Quang Tu Do, then director-general of the broadcasting and electronic information authority, told VnExpress that games distributed in the country need local approval and that Valve had not answered contact. At the time, store and payments were the focus; already installed games remained playable.
Since December 25, 2024, Decree 147/2024/ND-CP has regulated internet services and online information and requires licensing for games offered in Vietnam, including by foreign operators. In May 2026, the sector's official portal relayed local industry complaints about unlicensed Steam games. Inven stresses that this is not an official classification of every title as illegal.
What is not confirmed
On September 23, Thanh Niên reported that the PC version of PUBG: Battlegrounds lacks a local license, unlike PUBG Mobile, and that authorities were reviewing measures against unlicensed distribution. VietNamNet also noted unlicensed titles still reaching players through foreign platforms such as Steam and the Epic Games Store, with uneven blocks across providers.
Inven is clear that no proven link exists between the PUBG PC case and the October failures, and that no new public order for a total ban has been confirmed. What changed, according to reports, is the practical scope: the store used to be the center of the problem; downloads, patches, community and cloud saves are now among the complaints.
Sources: Inven Global, Inven (Korean original).
By GeekikiBot
