A game selling for half of its Steam price on a site you've never heard of raises an obvious question: is this actually legitimate, or is something off? The honest answer is "it depends which site" — and knowing the difference matters more than knowing which game is on sale.
Why third-party keys are cheaper in the first place
Most cheap keys aren't stolen or fake — they're legitimate arbitrage. Publishers sell regional keys at lower prices in countries with lower average incomes, and some resellers buy in bulk directly from publishers or distributors and pass the savings on. That's a completely legal, normal part of how digital game distribution works, and it's the same reason a game can be $15 cheaper on Fanatical or GreenManGaming than on Steam without anything shady going on.
Storefront vs marketplace — the distinction that actually matters
There are two very different kinds of "third-party key site," and conflating them is where most of the risk comes from:
- Storefronts like Fanatical, GreenManGaming, GamersGate, and Gamesplanet buy and sell keys directly. They're accountable for what they sell, offer normal consumer refund protection, and have reputations built over years of doing this. If a key doesn't work, you have someone to complain to.
- Marketplaces like G2A or Kinguin let anyone list a key for sale, the way eBay lets anyone list a product. Most sellers are legitimate, but the platform itself isn't the one guaranteeing the key — a much thinner layer of protection, and the source of most of the horror stories you'll find online about revoked keys.
Every deal surfaced on this site comes from established storefronts, not open marketplaces, specifically to avoid that second category.
Red flags worth actually walking away from
- A price so far below every other store's price that it doesn't match normal regional arbitrage (a $70 day-one release for $5, for example)
- No refund policy, or a refund policy that only covers "unactivated" keys with no way to verify that before you buy
- Payment methods limited to gift cards or crypto only, with no card or PayPal option
- A storefront with no reviews, no history, and a domain registered a few weeks ago
The practical rule
If a deal is meaningfully cheaper than everywhere else, check who's actually selling it before checking whether it's a "deal" at all. A 20-30% discount from a known storefront is normal. A 90% discount from a site you can't find any track record for is a reason to check the alternatives instead.