Epic Games has previewed a new version of its PC launcher and claims it is "1.8x faster than Steam." The company showed the preview publicly, putting a hard number on a performance gap it says now separates its client from Valve's dominant store on PC.

The claim is the sharpest competitive framing Epic has offered in years. Steam still commands the majority of PC game sales, and download and install speed has long been one of the practical reasons players cite for staying there. If Epic's figure holds up in independent testing, it attacks that advantage directly.

What does the launcher preview actually change?

For now, it changes perception more than operations. This is a preview, not a full release. Epic has not yet announced a date when every user will get the new client, so studios shipping on the Epic Games Store should treat the speed claim as a marketing signal rather than a shipped feature.

What it signals is an engineering push behind the storefront. Epic has spent years competing on economics instead of client quality. The store's 12% revenue cut, against Steam's 30% baseline, remains the core pitch to developers. A faster launcher adds a consumer-facing argument to a pitch that has mostly addressed publishers.

For developers, the stakes are straightforward. Store exclusivity deals and free-game giveaways have driven Epic Games Store sign-ups since the platform launched in December 2018. Those tactics built a user base but did not fix day-to-day friction in the client itself. A launcher that installs and loads games faster gives players fewer reasons to leave games in their Steam libraries instead.

Why the 1.8x number matters

Performance claims from platform holders deserve scrutiny, and this one comes without published methodology in the preview announcement. Steam has iterated on its own client for two decades, and download speeds vary with region, server load and hardware. Independent benchmarks will tell the real story once the client reaches wider release.

Still, the framing is notable. Epic chose to name Steam explicitly rather than claim a generic speed improvement. That is a direct challenge to a competitor that has rarely needed to answer one on client performance. It also fits a broader pattern: Epic has spent 2024 and 2025 reworking store features players asked for at launch, from achievements to a shopping cart that arrived years late.

The number translates simply for players. A download that takes an hour on Steam would, on Epic's claimed math, take roughly 33 minutes. That is the kind of difference a user notices once and remembers.

For studios weighing platform splits, a faster client does not change the 12%-versus-30% revenue math. It changes the audience-side risk of skipping Steam entirely.

What to watch next

The open question is timing and verification. Watch for a wide release date from Epic and for third-party benchmarks testing the 1.8x figure against Steam on real hardware. Those results, more than the preview itself, will show whether Epic has closed a gap players have complained about since the store launched.