My internet speed is slower than the download speeds of Steam.
My internet speed is slower than the download speeds of Steam.
Steam uses compression to move data efficiently. The display shows bytes being decompressed each second. Many game files can be reduced in size—background sounds might stay uncompressed, while textures and music are kept uncompressed for easier streaming. For instance, a 5 GB file could drop to 4 GB during transfer, allowing your client to download only 4 GB. At a 100 Mbps connection, this would take roughly 400 seconds, but since only about 4000 MB moves at 12.5 MB/s, the actual time drops to around 320 seconds. This means Steam reports an average speed of 15.65 MB/s, which is faster than your internet rate. Sometimes Steam downloads just the updated parts, checking hashes and skipping unchanged files. It may also account for the size of files that weren’t transferred, so a sequence like a 50 MB and then a 100 MB file might appear to move at 50 MB/s even though no real data was sent.
You're welcome! I'm glad it met your expectations. Let me know if you need anything else.