Epic Games released a preview of its rebuilt, "vibe coded" Epic Games Launcher on October 14 and took a direct shot at Steam in the process. Epic's own chart shows the new launcher cold starting in 5.47 seconds against 10.07 seconds for Steam, which the company bills as 46% faster. That lead apparently didn't last long, as a clip posted by user girlglock_ on X shows the current Steam client starting in 5.23 seconds.
This does not appear to be a rushed reply from Valve. The stable Steam Client Update listing "Improved Steam Client startup performance" is dated October 13, a day before Epic's announcement, and Steam's beta client was already getting startup improvements in September. Valve has not shared any numbers for it, though. Epic's figures come from testing commissioned from Keywords Studios earlier this month, averaging five runs on 13 machines, with the three lowest-end systems left out. They were probably taken on an older Steam build, and results will vary from one PC to the next.
Epic's launcher is also light on features for now, and the company advises competitive Fortnite and Rocket League players to stay on the current launcher during the preview. It runs natively on Linux, with Fortnite set to follow once Epic finishes rebuilding its anti-cheat.
Startup time is only one line in a fairly large Steam update. The release moves much of what Valve has been testing in beta to the stable channel, starting with Big Art Mode, which fills the background with the highlighted game's artwork. Big Picture Mode gains screensavers, a Personal Calendar appears on the Home screen, Remote Play adds an experimental Pyrowave codec, and the Steam Controller gains a second Bluetooth pairing slot.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing