A Rebuilt Client With a Speed Claim

The new Epic Games Launcher was presented as a faster, lighter alternative to the incumbent Steam client, with Epic citing a 46% advantage in launch speed. The "vibe coded" label attached to the project has fueled discussion about the launcher's development process, which Epic has characterized as an AI-assisted, accelerated build.

The comparison centers specifically on application launch time, not in-store or in-game performance, and Epic's figure has not been matched by broad independent benchmark data in the material reviewed.

Open Questions Remain

While the 46% figure comes directly from Epic, the testing conditions behind it — such as hardware configuration, cache states, and whether both clients were tested on the same system — were not detailed. As with any first-party performance claim against a competitor's product, the result should be treated as the company's own measurement until third-party benchmarks are available.

Epic's launcher has historically trailed Steam in adoption, and a materially faster startup could be a meaningful differentiator for players who keep multiple store clients installed on the same machine. Whether the speed advantage holds across a range of systems remains unconfirmed.

For players weighing the claim, the numbers are Epic's own and the methodology behind them is not yet public — making the 46% figure largely credible but not independently established. On balance, the claim is Mostly True.