Digital game key companies have come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, and rightfully so. Many were not very careful about how they acquired them, resulting in some keys that were invalid. Add to that the fact that getting refunds can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, means that most gamers are reluctant to purchase digital game keys.
A legitimate site deals directly with suppliers, other sites that do not deal directly with suppliers are more likely to have issues with their keys because they can’t verify their authenticity. Digital game keys sold by companies like Fanatical, Green Man Gaming, Steam and Gog are legitimate.
I did a lot of research into digital game companies and three companies stand out to me, Steam, Gog and Fanatical. Although I looked at reviews for a lot of companies, the reviews all said pretty much the same thing, both positive and negative. What I was more interested in was the top and bottom rating percentages. While anything in the 80% range I considered good, I figured the Bad rating was more important due to human nature. Let’s face it, when I’m upset about something I’m a lot more likely to voice my unhappiness with it than with anything else.
Here’s a disclaimer I try to run on all my affiliate pages. Yes, I’m an affiliate for some of these companies and games. However, I could be an affiliate for many different games and many different companies, but I specifically chose these because they are all great games and companies. By using my links, you help support this website.
Fanatical
I chose Fanatical (paid link) through a preponderance of evidence as being the best when it came to buying a sometimes inexpensive game or DLC with a high degree of confidence that the digital key will work. Their Trustpilot rating (more about Trustpilot later in this article) was tied for the highest of all the companies I reviewed at 4.7, with 85% of the Trustpilot reviews rating them as Excellent and only 2% as Bad, which they also tied for as being the company with the lowest Bad percentage rating.
They are also listed by the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker (this is a page maintained by the r/Steam and r/GameDeals moderators) as being a site that has provided “Proof of Authenticity” that they are an authorized seller. If anyone should be considered an authority on game key distributors, I think these moderators are the perfect choice. I’ve included a link to the Reddit Game Deals Store at the bottom of the page.
Fanatical’s average cost based on the games I sampled (4) places them as one of the more expensive game key distributors but they are sometimes still far cheaper than Steam, GOG and Green Man Gaming. This really doesn’t surprise me since they are also an authorized dealer and not a company buying keys anywhere without being assured of the authenticity of the keys, and their low 2% Bad rating indicates to me that their process works well. In other words, they don’t dilute their prices by buying from disreputable dealers.
They are also the only company to answer 100% of their bad reviews (1 & 2 star) at Trustpilot and they typically reply in two days or less. That gives me the impression that this company is very responsive and active when it comes to customer support and is concerned about their company image.
I did send a message asking if a key not activating would qualify as a technical issue (it does) and be eligible for a refund. I received a reply within two days (on a Sunday) so I consider their customer support to be very good.
They will refund your money if the game key hasn’t been activated and if it has been less than 14 days since you ordered it. A key that hasn’t been activated can be sold again so no problem there, they can recoup their loss. If you bought the key, activated the key, then noticed it was the wrong one then you’re out of luck getting a refund. Fair enough for me, other sites are the same.
Their Trustpilot rating is 4.7, Excellent ratings are 85% and Bad ratings 2%. They have a total of over 71,000 reviews on Trustpilot. I looked at the 2% bad ratings comments first and they all had to do with problems getting the digital keys to work. Fanatical replied to every one of them I looked at with offers of help. The Excellent reviews boiled down to thinking the overall process was simple, thought customer support was great, and that they had great deals. They have replied to 100% of their negative reviews (1- & 2-star reviews) in typically in 2 days or less according to Trustpilot.
The biggest problem I see with Fanatical is that you don’t always save money with them, sometimes they’re more expensive than Steam. Best thing to do is take a look at several digital key sellers, compare prices, decide how much risk you want to take and then decide.
I definitely recommend Fanatical if you want to occasionally save money and have used them myself. You can browse games at the Fanatical Home page (paid link) or take a look at some of the games I’ve written about on this site by searching for them.
STEAM
Steam would be my other choice and I’ve used them extensively and they are almost always my first choice to be honest. Steam is the only company I looked at that has chosen not to participate with Trustpilot so their total reviews are low, even though they are the biggest digital game dealer today (maybe that explains it). Bad reviews are for prices being too high, trouble getting hardware delivered that was ordered, terrible customer service and trouble downloading games. I will admit I’ve had issues with their customer support in the past but in all fairness, I have gotten refunds a time or two as well.
Excellent reviews were for giving independent gaming companies a chance, having a great game variety and the ability to get refunds. Steam has never replied to any of the negative reviews at Trustpilot.
Although expensive when compared to Fanatical you do have the confidence that the granddaddy of them all will provide you with a valid game key that has a minimal chance of failure.
They will give you a refund if you ask within 14 days of purchase and if the game has been played for less than 2 hours. Even if you don’t meet those requirements, they will still look at your refund request and sometimes honor it.
Watch those 2 hours though, they go by fast. As soon as you click play the timer starts, even if you’re in some type of queue waiting to play a game online.
Their Trustpilot rating is 2.5 with 22% Excellent ratings and a whopping 55% Bad review percentage, total reviews are only 496. With such a low number of reviews I really don’t put much faith in the numbers. This is not the fault of Trustpilot, Steam has just chosen to not participate in their program, but Trustpilot still allows gamers to post reviews about them. I personally think Steam is an excellent gaming platform except for their customer service. I definitely recommend them although you’re usually not going to get the best price.
Stream does not have an affiliate program so I have no paid links to them but since they are among the best I want to list them anyway. You can browse their games at the Steam home page.
GOG
Although they probably won’t save you money GoG (paid link) is a good alternative to Steam. Their Trustpilot rating is 3.3, their Excellent review percentage is 47% and their Bad review percentage is 39%. They have a total of only 465 reviews and have been a member of Trustpilot 2019.
Since their total review number is so low, I tend to disregard their Trustpilot rating in this case, especially based on my experiences with them. There is a lack of participation by them at Trustpilot with only 70% of their negative reviews being answered in 2 weeks or less, which leads me to believe their customer support is lacking if their Trtustpilot participation is any indication.
This is a trustworthy company that I’ve dealt with, but their prices are usually the same as Steam’s plus their selection of newer games is a little limited, their selection of older games is where they stand out. They are listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page.
I recommend them (paid link) due to their trustworthiness (based on my experience) plus their great selection of old games.
Trustpilot
Before going on to the other companies I thought I’d talk about Trustpilot since I based a lot of my decision-making process on them. I started looking for some type of standard to measure these companies by and noticed that some of them featured a Trustpilot rating on their home page. Low scores for a company, like Steam or Gog, don’t necessarily mean it’s a “bad” company, but reading the reviews gave me an idea of what to expect, and I especially paid attention the Bad rating percentage. I felt like this was a good indication of how well their digital keys performed.
The area Trustpilot stands out in, in my opinion, is with online businesses like Fanatical and CDKeys. Looking at the reviews and company responses gives me an idea of how good their company and customer support really is.
Trustpilot Ratings
Trustpilot was started in 2007 and is open for anyone to use. Below is a table for the digital key companies I looked at, sorted on Trustpilot rating, from highest to lowest.
| Company | Rating | Excellent Ratings | Bad Ratings | Total Reviews |
| Instant Gaming | 4.7 | 89% | 2% | 556,464 |
| CDKeys | 4.7 | 88% | 6% | 93,018 |
| Fanatical | 4.7 | 85% | 2% | 71,088 |
| Eneba | 4.5 | 83% | 8% | 72,973 |
| Green Man Gaming | 4.5 | 79% | 6% | 20,269 |
| Kinguin | 4.2 | 72% | 15% | 33,488 |
| Gog | 3.3 | 47% | 39% | 465 |
| G2A | 3.2 | 80% | 8% | 280,440 |
| Steam | 2.5 | 22% | 55% | 496 |
| SCDKey | 2.2 | 67% | 17% | 5,833 |
Game Price Samples
Below is a table of the prices I found for each company. Very unscientific, I know, but still a good indicator of a company’s pricing, with prices sorted from lowest to highest.
| Company | Stellaris Cost (standard edition) | HOI4 (Cadet Edition) | Civ 6 | Frostpunk cost | Average cost |
| Instant Gaming | $5.08 | $7.83 | $4.86 | $6.81 | $6.15 |
| Kinguin | $6.77 | $6.95 | $6.85 | $4.49 | $6.27 |
| G2A | $6.04 | $8.91 | $5.68 | $5.55 | $6.55 |
| CDKeys | $8.89 | Not listed | $7.49 | $6.19 | $7.52 |
| Eneba | $8.85 | $5.67 | $5.61 | $12.26 | $8.10 |
| Fanatical | $8.79 | $8.79 | $14.99 | $22.04 | $13.65 |
| SCDKey | $29.72 | $30.81 | Not listed for US | $26.62 | $29.05 |
| Gog | $39.99 | Not listed | Not listed | $29.99 | $34.99 |
| Green Man Gaming | $39.99 | $39.99 | $59.99 | $29.99 | $42.49 |
| Steam | $39.99 | $39.99 | $59.99 | $29.99 | $42.49 |
CDKeys
CDKeys Trustpilot rating was also 4.7, which tied for the highest. The things that make me cautious about them is their 6% Bad rating percentage (although not terribly bad when compared to others), lack of responses in the Trustpilot review process and not being listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page. While none of this means they are a shady company these are a few of the issues that concern me.
Their lack of activity at Trustpilot indicates a lack of concern for their company’s reputation since they are a participating member at that site. They have only replied to 16% of their negative reviews and that was in 1 week or less.
They have cheaper prices than most but when I take into account their 6% Bad review percentage and the fact that they are not listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page makes me worry. I worry that that at least some of their keys are purchased from sources that are not directly tied to the game publisher, allowing them to charge cheaper prices, but they may not know the validity of all the keys they are selling. This makes the chances of buying a non-working key a little higher than someone who deals directly with the gaming companies. Once that key is revealed to you, even if invalid, no refund according to their policy.
Unfortunately, I could not submit a question about their refund policy to their support group without an order number. Guess you have to have a problem first before you can contact them. Definitely something I don’t like.
In their T&Cs they state “We offer refunds on a discretionary basis, and each refund request is looked at individually. We do our best to provide a refund where possible, but please note that games that have been played or keys that have been redeemed are ineligible for a refund. Refund requests have to be submitted within 7 days of the delivery of the key by the Vendor to the Purchaser or Customer.” Once again, the policy itself seems fair enough.
Their Trustpilot rating is 4.7. They have an Excellent rating percentage of 88% and a Bad rating of 6%. Total reviews are over 93,000.
Bad reviews were people having issues with keys not working and poor customer service. They have replied to 16% of their negative reviews and typically make that reply in 1 week or less.
Kinguin
There was no refund policy on their website that I could find, if there is one it is not clearly posted. They did reply to my question about their refund policy within 24 hours of sending an email to them. Their response was friendly, concise and to the point. If a key I purchased from them that has not been viewed yet I can get an instant refund; otherwise, no refunds since they are unable to recover the cost of the key once that happens. Simple, direct, and to-the-point.
Their Trustpilot rating is 4.2. Excellent rating percentage is 72% and Bad rating percentage is 15%, total reviews at Trustpilot were over 33,000. Their bad ratings mostly had to do with digital key problems, not receiving the keys they had ordered, and bad customer service. Kinguin has replied to all 94% of their negative review (1 & 2 star) typically in less than 24 hours according to Trustpilot, indicating they are concerned about their company’s image and have an active customer support staff. Their replies usually offer technical support to fix the problems.
The Excellent ratings said they had fast and good support, that buying from them was a good experience, and that they had great prices.
Their extremely low prices and not being listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker makes me worry a little about where they are obtaining their game keys. The Bad rating percentage of 15% indicates that their digital key process is suspect. Because of their Trustpilot rating of 4.2, quick customer service and cheap prices (they really do have some good deals).
Green Man Gaming
Green Man Gaming has a Trustpilot rating of 4.5 with over 20,000 reviews currently. Their Excellent review percentage is 79% and their Bad rating percentage is 6%. They have replied to 66% of their negative reviews in typically one week or less.
Their refund link is prominently placed on their home page (great idea!). Their refund policy states “Refunds or store credit may be issued solely at Green Man Gaming’s discretion and every refund request is treated on a case by case basis, taking into consideration the following conditions:
The time of your request for refund/credit is no more than 7 days from the time of purchase.
The game has not been activated or downloaded (including keyless redemption).
The game activation key (including any bonus or beta keys) has not been disclosed to you by email or web page.”
This is a good company but their prices appear to be the same as Steam’s. Their poor participation in the review process makes me wonder about their customer service. Their Bad review percentage is only 6% but not all of that has to due with gaming keys. They are a good company that is listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page, but I can’t recommend them over Steam or Fanatical, there is nothing I can see that makes them stand out above them unless you just want another alternative.
SCDKey
Trustpilot rating for SCDKey is 2.2, Excellent review percentage is 67%, Bad review percentage is 17% with over 5,000 total reviews on Trustpilot. They have replied to 77% of negative reviews on Trustpilot within 1 week or less. They are not listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page. ‘Nuff said about this one.
G2A
Trustpilot rating is 3.2, Excellent rating percentage is 80%, Bad review rating is 8%, total reviews at Trustpilot are over 280,000.
They have replied to 99% of their bad reviews, typically in 24 hours or less. Only Fanatical is better at 100%.
Bad reviews for this company that are not common to most of the others are not following through on a refund after approving it and too many upcharges and hidden fees.
The low Trustpilot rating, Bad review percentage of 8% and not being listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page makes me unwilling to use them if it were me.
Eneba
Trustpilot rating of 4.5, Excellent review percentage is 83%, Bad review percentage is 8%. Their total reviews at Trustpilot are almost 73,000.
They have replied to 96% of their negative reviews in typically 24 hours or less which is an excellent track record.
With a Bad rating percentage of 8% and not being listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page I would consider them a moderate risk to use
Instant Gaming
Instant Gaming has a Trustpilot rating of 4.7 with an Excellent review percentage of 89% and a 2% Bad percentage. They have a total of over = 556,000 reviews at Trustpilot.
They have not answered any negative reviews (1 & 2 stars) in the past year at Trustpilot and are not listed on the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker page.
I poked around on their website a little bit and, to be honest this looks like a trustworthy, reputable site, but their lack of responses at Trustpilot makes me suspicious about how concerned they are about their company image and customers.
Here is a link to the Reddit GameDeals Store Checker.
