diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 84224d2..261bd8e 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -31,4 +31,6 @@ COPY nginx.conf /etc/nginx/conf.d/default.conf
 COPY www/ /usr/share/nginx/html/
 COPY --from=build /out/ /usr/share/nginx/html/
 COPY --from=standalone /out/standalone/ /usr/share/nginx/html/standalone/
+# packed once for gzip_static (nginx.conf)
+RUN cd /usr/share/nginx/html && gzip -k -9 dungeoncraft.wasm mq_js_bundle.js standalone/DungeonCraft.html
 EXPOSE 80
diff --git a/nginx.conf b/nginx.conf
index bf4fb80..2c1d0a4 100644
--- a/nginx.conf
+++ b/nginx.conf
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ server {
     index index.html;
     # test build: always reload fresh files
     add_header Cache-Control "no-cache";
+    # compressed downloads: the big files are packed once at build time (*.gz, see Dockerfile),
+    # the rest on the fly (the wasm goes from about 8.8 MB to 2.6 MB)
+    gzip_static on;
+    gzip on;
+    gzip_types application/wasm application/javascript text/css application/json application/manifest+json image/svg+xml;
+    gzip_min_length 1024;
+    gzip_vary on;
     location / {
         try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
     }