Steam Client is now faster than Epic's new vibe coded launcher
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Valve patched Steam to beat Epic's new launcher in startup speed within 24 hours.
Epic launched a preview of its vibe-coded launcher, touting faster load times than Steam. Within a day, Valve pushed a Steam update dropping cold boot time to 5.23 seconds, beating Epic's 5.47 seconds. The article notes that despite speed improvements, Epic's launcher still lacks many Steam features: no forums, user reviews, guides, mod support, family sharing, remote play, or controller remapping. Valve's update was an optimized CEF version that had been in beta for weeks.
What commenters are saying
Many commenters thank Epic for spurring Valve to improve Steam, but few see startup speed as a critical problem. Several call the Steam client itself terrible on macOS and Linux, with high memory use and focus-stealing bugs. A counter-camp points out that the CEF update was in beta for six weeks, making the timing a coincidence. Others ridicule Epic for bragging about a launcher that still lacks basic community features, while a few note that faster loading is a welcome improvement for bloated app stores.