  For a sequence $\{U_n\}_{n = 1}^\infty$ of finite index subgroups of a direct
product $G = A \times B$ of finitely generated groups, we show that $$\lim_{n
\to \infty} \frac{\min\{|X| : \langle X \rangle = U_n\}}{[G : U_n]} = 0$$ once
$[A : A \cap U_n], [B : B \cap U_n] \to \infty$ as $n \to \infty$. Our proof
relies on the classification of finite simple groups. For $A,B$ that are
finitely presented we show that $$ \lim_{n \to \infty} \frac{\log
|\mathrm{Torsion}(U_n^{\mathrm{ab}})|}{[G : U_n]} = 0. $$
