You are eagerly awaiting the release of a video game on the internet distribution platform Steam and want to start playing straight away. However, before you can start, you must first download the game. However, the download speed is not very fast and you may have to wait a long time for it to download, depending on your internet connection.
In this short tutorial, we will show you a few ways to speed up the download on Steam. You don’t even need any other programs for this.
Worth reading: Survival games 2024 – Only survival counts!
Steam: How to increase the download speed
One of the most obvious problems with a slow download of a video game via Steam is your own internet connection. Various disruptive factors can occur here. You have generally not booked a fast Internet connection with your provider or your Internet provider is currently experiencing a general malfunction. You can check websites such as AlleStörungen.de to see if your provider is currently having problems.
If you want to find out the performance of your Internet line, you can test your own Internet speed on sites such as Speedtest.net or the broadband measurement of the Federal Network Agency. For example, if you have a 100 Mbit line but less is coming in, this is how you find out. Your PC’s Internet connection also plays a major role. A connection between your router and the PC via a LAN cable transmits the Internet much faster than wirelessly via WLAN or an antenna.
How to change the download region for Steam
If your internet connection is good and the slow download is due to Steam itself, you can adjust a few things in the settings. When you download something via the platform, Steam accesses a server that is located close to your home. However, depending on the day of the week or time of day, many players may download something via this server and the download speed may be throttled as a result.
Steam normally selects the best server in your region. However, you can also change this manually. To do this, open Steam and navigate to “Settings”. Under the menu item “Downloads” you will find the item “Download region” right at the top. You can now use the drop-down menu next to it to switch back and forth between the regions, which may affect the download speed.
How to remove the bandwidth limit in Steam
If you download something on Steam but also want to run other programs or downloads, you can limit the bandwidth yourself in Steam. To remove or activate this limitation, open Steam and navigate to “Settings”. Under the menu item “Downloads” you will find the option “Limit download speed” and can activate or deactivate this option using the slider next to it. If you want to play a game during the download, you can also activate the option here to continue the download in the background during an active game.
How to clear the cache of the Steam download
With larger amounts of data that are downloaded via Steam, problems with the cache can rarely occur. This is the cached data from Steam. Steam normally empties this cache automatically after a certain time, but you can also do this manually yourself.
Open Steam and go to “Settings”. Pause the current download and navigate to the menu item “Downloads”. Scroll down a little here until you reach the option “Empty download cache”. You can now clear the cache manually using the “Clear cache” button on the right-hand side, which can also be helpful if you have problems starting applications.
More: Steam download problems with Hogwarts Legacy – solution
Goodbye slow Steam downloads
As you can read here, there are a few tricks you can use to boost your Steam download. If you download large amounts of data via Steam, it can also happen that the download speed decreases or increases during the download. Keep an eye on the current download progress in your Steam library.
Here you can see how much is left to download and the current download speed. The respective key figures and a progress bar are displayed next to the active download at the top right.
You are also interested in other genres? Then check out our guides or Specials to the hottest games, manga or series and movies! Want to get a new game on the cheap? Then buy it at our partner MMOGA.
