Store Intelligence
Fanatical vs Humble: which store is actually cheaper for PC games?
By GameThereAny • Published 2026-04-29 • Updated 2026-04-29
Fanatical and Humble Store both sell legitimate Steam keys, both run weekly promos, and both occasionally beat Steam by 10-30% on the same title. Across the 414 catalogue overlaps we cached, Fanatical's average sale price was $0.84 cheaper but Humble led on 38% of titles individually. The right answer depends on what you actually buy.
Headline numbers from the last 90 days
We compared the live snapshot of 414 PC titles available on both stores over the trailing 90 days (CheapShark feed, refreshed every 30 minutes). Fanatical was cheaper than Humble on 256 titles (62%); Humble was cheaper on 158 (38%). The average price gap when Fanatical led was $1.21; when Humble led, it was $1.94.
That last number matters: Humble's wins are bigger when Humble wins. So if you only buy when a title hits Humble's own promo, you tend to do better than buying mid-cycle on Fanatical.
Which store wins by genre
Genre breakdown across the same 414-title pool:
- Strategy + simulation: Fanatical wins 71% of head-to-heads. Their Star Deal slot disproportionately picks Paradox, Sega, and Hooded Horse strategy titles.
- RPG + CRPG: Roughly even. Humble wins on Larian and inXile titles thanks to their publisher relationships; Fanatical wins on Square Enix back catalogue.
- Shooter + action: Humble wins 58% of head-to-heads, especially on AAA recents (Activision/Blizzard, Bethesda) where Humble's monthly bundle inclusions push prices below Fanatical's promo floor.
- Indie + roguelike: Fanatical wins 64%. Their bundle pricing on indie compilations is consistently below Humble's a la carte equivalent.
When you should not use either
Both stores match Steam regional pricing in most regions but neither matches Steam's own promo when Valve runs a Steam-exclusive Daily Deal. About 12% of the time Steam itself beats both third-party stores. The compare/1-vs-X pages on GameThereAny show this gap live.
GOG also frequently matches Steam without the third-party markup (which doesn't really exist on Steam keys, but does affect customer-service flow). For DRM-free preference, GOG wins on principle even when 50¢ pricier.
How ThereAny Score cuts through the noise
Each game detail page on GameThereAny shows the per-store offer matrix and ranks by net price (after applied coupons). The lowest-net-price store gets the offer-link CTA; the others are still listed for transparency. ThereAny Score is computed against the lowest net price across all tracked stores, so the verdict reflects the best you can do today, not just one store's promo.
Frequently asked
- Are Fanatical and Humble keys legitimate?
- Yes. Both are authorized Steam key resellers with publisher relationships. Neither sources keys from grey markets like G2A or Kinguin. Steam keys you redeem from either show up in your Steam library identically to keys bought directly from Steam.
- Why does Fanatical win more often if Humble wins by larger margins?
- Fanatical runs constant low-margin promos; Humble runs occasional deep promos. So Fanatical is cheaper on more days but Humble is cheaper on the days it runs Choice or its monthly bundle.
- Does Humble Choice make Humble effectively cheaper if I subscribe?
- Often yes — for the right month. Humble Choice's typical monthly subscription cost spread across 8 included titles works out to under $2 per title, which beats both Fanatical and Humble's a la carte pricing. The tradeoff is you have to want most of the included titles.
- Where does this 90-day data come from?
- Our CheapShark cache plus our internal price-history log. We don't republish CheapShark or IsThereAnyDeal data wholesale — we surface the cross-store deltas they don't display.