Why can some game updates be applied automatically and some require download? [closed]
These two kinds of updates are usually referred to as hotfixes and patches. Hotfixes are server-side changes, while patches push out new assets and code to the player's computer. Because the hotfixes are server-side, there's no need to download something to the player's machine, instead they get the update when they communicate with the server. For patches, though, there is enough that is being changed that it's easier to do it as an offline download and install.