Epic Games Launches Faster, Rebuilt Launcher in Preview

If you have spent any time waiting for the Epic Games Launcher to drag itself to life, a major update might finally change that. Epic has officially released a completely rebuilt version of its launcher, now available in a preview build. According to reporting from IGN, this version moves away from the old, sluggish framework in favor of a new tech stack that prioritizes raw performance.

A Ground-Up Rebuild

Martin Keely, vice president and general manager of the Epic Games Store, told IGN that the team essentially scrapped the old architecture. The new shell, download manager, and store pages have been rewritten entirely to improve efficiency. The headline change is speed: Epic claims the app now boots from a cold start in roughly 5.47 seconds and opens from the system tray in just 0.36 seconds. Keely also noted that the library itself is purportedly 30 times faster to load than the previous iteration, all while maintaining a slim 300MB footprint to ensure it runs well on a variety of hardware.

Expanding to New Platforms

Beyond the performance gains, the launcher is expanding its reach. In addition to Windows and MacOS, Epic is officially bringing support to Linux. While the launcher itself is ready for Linux, Fortnite remains unavailable on the platform for the moment. Epic stated they are currently working on rebuilding the Easy Anti-Cheat system for Linux and plan to bring the title over once they achieve a “critical mass” of support from distribution maintainers.

Why it matters

For players, the immediate impact is a significantly snappier experience when jumping into games or browsing the store. If you have been frustrated by long load times or a bloated interface, these quality-of-life updates—including the ability to customize your top navigation bar and better library filtering—are designed to make the platform less of a headache.

Because this is currently a preview build, Epic acknowledges it is still “light on features,” so you might notice some missing components while they continue development. Moving forward, the team plans to focus on smarter game discovery and social features to help users find and recommend titles more easily. Keep an eye out for updates to the store architecture, as Epic intends to refine how it merchandises games to make the platform feel more personalized to your play style.