Valve Pushes An Update That Makes Steam Boot Up Faster Than Epic Games Launcher

Valve recently released an update for the Steam client that has significantly reduced the platform's boot-up time. The new version allows the Steam client to go from cold to the main window in just 5.23 seconds, according to a report from dea (@girlglock_) on October 15, 2026. This improvement was made possible by Valve's "Improved Steam Client startup performance" change, as stated in the update's change log.

The significance of this update lies in the fact that it has a faster boot-up time compared to Epic Games Launcher, the rival platform to Valve's Steam. Epic Games Launcher was previously reported to have a cold-boot time of 5.47 seconds, nearly half the downtime of Steam's original 10-second boot-up sequence. Epic Games claimed that its launcher was 14% faster when restoring the launch from the system tray.

Valve's move appears to be a direct response to Epic Games' taunting message "programming is hard" and the subsequent graphs that backed up their claim. Valve is evidently taking a shot at the Unreal Engine owner and rival. While the sub-5-second boot-up demo of Steam looks authentic, it's important to note that actual boot-up times for the Steam client post-update range between five and seven seconds, depending on the machine being used and its specifications.