Epic Games has released a new version of the Epic Games Launcher, claiming up to a 46% improvement in startup speed. Valve subsequently updated the Steam client, making the launch times of these two PC game launchers a focal point of comparison.
In the comparison listed by Windows Central, Steam originally took about 10 seconds to launch, while the new Epic launcher took about 5 seconds. Tech4Gamers reported the new Epic launcher's startup time at approximately 5.47 seconds. These figures are based on claims or test descriptions cited in the articles and are not fixed benchmarks applicable to all PCs.
After the Steam client update, Windows Central described its launch time as approximately 5 seconds; Tech4Gamers measured it at around 5.23 seconds, concluding that Steam is once again faster than Epic. Since the test conditions in the two articles were not standardized, "which is faster" still depends on the specific testing environment.
Beyond speed, the new Epic launcher still has early adoption issues. Tests encountered problems such as an immovable window and no prompt for installation location when installing games; the Windows Central author also noted that the new version appears to have bugs and pointed out that the product is still under development.