The Epic Games Store could soon feel like a very different app. After years of complaints about slow performance and heavy system resource use—especially when compared with Steam—Epic Games says it’s preparing its biggest update in months by modernizing and rewriting much of the store’s code.
The push comes as the Epic Games Store continues to grow in usage, even if it still trails Steam in overall revenue and player activity. In 2025, Epic reported a strong year for the platform, reaching 78 million monthly active users. Players also spent more than $400 million on third-party games (excluding Fortnite), and logged a massive 2.78 billion hours playing third-party titles. A big portion of that engagement likely comes from the store’s popular weekly free game promotions, which have helped bring in new users and keep existing ones checking in regularly.
Despite those numbers, Epic knows the storefront experience itself hasn’t kept pace. Many PC gamers describe the Epic Games Store app as slower to react to clicks, longer to load pages, and less stable than competitors—while also consuming more system resources. Epic’s planned rebuild is meant to address those pain points directly. Starting this summer, the company expects the app to feel faster across the board, with quicker load times, snappier responsiveness, and improved stability.
Performance isn’t the only area getting attention. Epic also plans to expand the store with more community-focused features—many of which PC gamers already consider standard elsewhere. Users should be able to build a more meaningful player profile, including an avatar, and have improved ways to connect with friends.
One of the more notable additions is voice chat that isn’t tied to a specific game. That means friends could potentially talk even if they’re not all playing the same title. Epic is also working on “friend groups,” which are currently expected to arrive in the second quarter of 2026, giving players another way to organize their social circles inside the platform.
Epic has also signaled a move toward smoother cross-device ownership for certain games. In the future, titles that are available on both smartphones and PCs may be purchasable once and then playable across both platforms, reducing friction for players who switch between devices.
If Epic delivers on both speed improvements and long-requested quality-of-life features, the Epic Games Store update could make the launcher feel far less like a compromise—and more like a true long-term competitor for PC game buying, downloading, and social play.
