Why is my Sims 4 download stuck around 80 KB/s?

The flash drive could definitely be the problem, especially while the game is being installed directly onto it. Many basic USB thumb drives have very slow write and random-write speeds, so the EA app may pause or slow down while unpacking and writing files. A USB drive is also not ideal for running a game from. If possible, download the game to your computer’s internal drive first, then move it to better storage later after clearing some space.

The first thing to figure out is whether the bottleneck is your internet connection, Wi-Fi, or the USB drive. Run a speed test on two different devices. If both get similar results, that is probably the connection speed you’re receiving. If one device is much slower, its Wi-Fi hardware or signal may be the problem. Also check whether your internet plan lists speeds in megabits per second, since download apps often show megabytes per second. Those units are different: 10 MB/s is roughly 80 Mb/s.

Turning off Wi-Fi on another device usually won’t make a major difference unless that device was actively using a lot of bandwidth. Your best test is to pause the installation and run a speed test near the computer. If the connection looks normal, the USB drive or the EA app’s download server is more likely responsible. At 80 KB/s, though, I’d avoid assuming the internet is the only issue.