The 'Villain Most In Need Of A Hug' Award The awards received around 15 million nominations. The voting took place from December 22–30, 2016, with the winners announced on December 31. The nomination process took place from November 23–29, 2016. Game nomination and voting periods are concurrent with Steam's annual autumn and winter holiday sales, centered around the holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Following this, Valve announces the winners.

These nominations are then presented to Steam users, giving them the opportunity to vote in each category. Valve subsequently reviews the nominations and then selects the top five games for final voting. In the first phase, Valve selects a number of categories, atypical of those used in gaming awards, and allows any registered Steam user to select one game available on Steam for that category. The Steam Awards are selected in two phases.