How to Fix Slow Steam Download Speeds

Steam Downloading Too Slow? What to Do — Increase Steam Download Speed 2023

Steam is known as the biggest distribution platform for PC games, hosting a library made up of many different titles. But since some games take up half your disk space, waiting for your new game to download can be an annoying process. In this article we'll offer some solutions to the increase Steam download speed issue — we hope these tips solve your problem for good!

Increase Steam Download Speed 2023

If you want to increase your download speeds on Steam, you can follow the steps below:

Change Your Steam Download Region

One way to quickly increase your Steam download speed is to change your Steam download region from the settings menu:

• To get started, open Steam and go to Steam > Settings.
• Click Downloads in the menu on the left.
• Set the Download Region closest to you from the dropdown menu.
• If this setting is set far from your actual location, your download speed may be slower than expected. Changing the download region to servers closer to you will help increase your overall Steam download speed.
• You should try to pick the server closest to your location, but if it's still slower than you'd like, it's worth experimenting a bit more.

Limit Bandwidth Usage in Steam

By experimenting, you should be able to find the best settings to maximize your download speeds.

• In Steam Settings > Downloads, make sure the Limit bandwidth to setting is set to No Limit.
• This gives Steam full access to use your maximum download speeds to download games faster, by ensuring Steam doesn't try to throttle your connection.
• Restart Steam for the new settings to take effect.

Prioritize Steam Traffic

Some routers give you the option to prioritize traffic to a specific device. They may also let you prioritize specific traffic on your network. This means your computer will be given more bandwidth to help speed up your downloads. If your router has this option, you can prioritize Steam traffic to speed things up.

Switch to an Ethernet Connection or Faster WiFi

While your WiFi connection may be a decent option, a wired ethernet connection always offers a better one. If you can, we recommend using an ethernet cable to connect your gaming PC directly to your router (and your internet connection). This will give you the highest speeds and bandwidth compared to WiFi connections.

Increasing your Steam download speeds can save you a lot of time on the large game downloads needed for new games or big game updates. If none of the options we've listed worked, you could also try using a friend's stronger internet connection.