Oh, you mean the Steam Download Speed™?
Yeah, so basically—Steam isn’t downloading your game. It’s pre-negotiating a mutual understanding with your internet on what “downloading” even means in this context.

See, Steam has speed. You have speed. But your speed can’t just take Steam’s speed. Steam has to offer the speed, and your speed has to agree to accept the speed. It’s a trust exercise.

If Steam sends too much speed too fast, your router gets overwhelmed and says,
“Whoa, slow down, I can’t handle this much speed!”
So Steam politely slows the speed down, so your speed can keep up with Steam’s speed, which is actually slowing down so it doesn’t outrun your speed.

Then your PC steps in and says, “Hold up, I’m writing the speed, but not fast enough to store the speed you’re speeding at,”
and Steam’s like, “No problem, I’ll slow my speed so your write speed can speed along at a speed it can handle while I speed less to let your speed speed safely.”

So what you’re seeing isn’t a slow download—it’s a perfect synchronization of mutual understanding between multiple speeds that all agreed to not speed too fast,
so your speed can download Steam’s speed at the most emotionally stable speed possible.

Originally posted by Sori:

Oh, you mean the Steam Download Speed™?
Yeah, so basically—Steam isn’t downloading your game. It’s pre-negotiating a mutual understanding with your internet on what “downloading” even means in this context.

See, Steam has speed. You have speed. But your speed can’t just take Steam’s speed. Steam has to offer the speed, and your speed has to agree to accept the speed. It’s a trust exercise.

If Steam sends too much speed too fast, your router gets overwhelmed and says,
“Whoa, slow down, I can’t handle this much speed!”
So Steam politely slows the speed down, so your speed can keep up with Steam’s speed, which is actually slowing down so it doesn’t outrun your speed.

Then your PC steps in and says, “Hold up, I’m writing the speed, but not fast enough to store the speed you’re speeding at,”
and Steam’s like, “No problem, I’ll slow my speed so your write speed can speed along at a speed it can handle while I speed less to let your speed speed safely.”

So what you’re seeing isn’t a slow download—it’s a perfect synchronization of mutual understanding between multiple speeds that all agreed to not speed too fast,
so your speed can download Steam’s speed at the most emotionally stable speed possible.

that is poetry to my ears, sorry ran out of points to give you

ok

what is download speed