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[ethomaz]

In 2019 they had 1 free game each 2 months.
That promotion will continue in 2020.

Epic Games today offered an update on the growth of the Epic Games Store. Launched in December of 2018, the store to-date has racked up $680 million in spending from 108 million PC customers.

While much of that total can be accounted for by Epic's own hit Fortnite, the company noted that $251 million has been spent by players on third-party PC games.

One of Epic Games Store's biggest selling points for customers has been its distribution of free games. When the Epic Games Store launched, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney promised it would offer one free game every two weeks throughout 2019. It actually surpassed that mark, so far providing 73 free games to players that have been downloaded more than 200 million times put together. The program has been successful enough that Epic also announced today it will be offering weekly free games throughout 2020.

Epic Games Store tops $680 million in player spending

Epic Games today offered an update on the growth of the Epic Games Store. Launched in December of 2018, the store to-da…

www.gamesindustry.biz

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Country breakdown (yay Brasil 2nd place):

 

[vito_don_corleone_]

Haters will continue to hate. Companies which know how to create a good business model will continue to make money.

More competition, more choices, customers will follow what’s better for them.

 

[ethomaz]

108m accounts downloading the last game means 108m MAU at least that month.

It is bigger than Steam already.
Same size of PSN.

The biggest point is probably that one:

"Third party game revenue is $251m and 60% higher than forecast."

Even with the time exclusive think the revenue for 3rd-party is way higher than what they expected.
They will never left Epic Store time-exclusivity while that continue to happen..

 

[Mokus]

How many of those 108 million played games other than Fortnite?

 

[Sygma]

Lol these figures are abysmal, 2.32$ per user outside of fortnite ? with like 90 exclusives on the store ?

 

[ethomaz]

How many of those 108 million played games other than Fortnite?

$251m was spent in 3rd-party games.

It is hard to say how many of these 108m players are Fortnite only because who plays Fortnite end playing others games too... even more when there are games free each 2 months where people spend money too.

 

[A.Romero]

Regional pricing and local payment options. Who would have thought?

I wonder if part of that third party revenue comes from the money hats and if they will continue that approach going forward.

BTW, I still don't see what is their idea of a good business model is.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Lol these figures are abysmal, 2.32$ per user outside of fortnite ? with like 90 exclusives on the store ?

Yeah, that's a terrible figure, a single Call of Duty game can exceed that spend for a weekend release...

Haters will continue to hate. Companies which know how to create a good business model will continue to make money.

More competition, more choices, customers will follow what’s better for them.

Good business? This is peanuts...

 

[Mokus]

$251m was spent in 3rd-party games.

It is hard to say how many of these 108m players are Fortnite only because who plays Fortnite end playing others games too... even more when there are games free each 2 months where people spend money too.

The average spending is below $2.50, that doesn't look good.

 

[ethomaz]

The average spending is below $2.50, that doesn't look good.

If you average 108m users.
Looks pretty great.

 

[Sygma]

thats like 4.2 million of games at 60$ give or take. World War Z and some other game sold 1.2 million, borderlands 3 made 2.1 or 2.3 million i gotta check again

soooo huh yeah, its kinda bad

edit : its around 2 million for bl 3

 

[DynamiteCop!]

thats like 4.2 million of games at 60$ give or take. World War Z and some other game made 1.2 million, borderlands 3 made 2.1 or 2.3 million i gotta check again

soooo huh yeah, its kinda bad

Valve must be shaking their boots lmao, what a joke.

This store was never a threat, it was a marketing assault. People just want the free games and if they're pressed enough to where they absolutely have to have said game they will buy it.

Total flop.

 

[ethomaz]

thats like 4.2 million of games at 60$ give or take. World War Z and some other game made 1.2 million, borderlands 3 made 2.1 or 2.3 million i gotta check again

soooo huh yeah, its kinda bad

It is 250m.

World War Z - $1.2m
Borderlands 3 - $2.3m

Where is the others $246 million?

 

[Mokus]

It is 250m.

World War Z - $1.2m
Borderlands 3 - $2.3m

Where is the others $246 million?

$250 million ≠ 250 million $60 copies of games

 

[DynamiteCop!]

$250 million ≠ 250 million $60 copies of game

Yeah like the dude said, that's like 4.2 million units at $60. That's abysmal.

That's literally the sales volume of a single moderately well selling AAA game on Steam.

 

[Bonfires Down]

Borderlands 2 has sold 11 million+ on Steam so I think Gearbox are a bit disappointed with that number. But it's by far and away the biggest true Epic Store exclusive, so equivalent to 2 million $60 games sold across all the other games seems like an ok result to me.

 

[zeorhymer]

So is the shopping cart implemented yet?

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Borderlands 2 has sold 11 million+ on Steam so I think Gearbox are a bit disappointed with that number. But it's by far and away the biggest true Epic Store exclusive, so equivalent to 2 million $60 games sold across all the other games seems like an ok result to me.

Man there's literally no way to spin any of this into a positive, it's not possible.

Borderlands 3 has sold 18% of Borderlands 2, and that 18% accounts for 47% of EGS total gross earnings across the entire store...

Like I said the whole EGS illusion was a marketing assault, them competing with Valve was an illusion, they are a paper tiger. This science experiment by Tim Sweeney is a total disaster.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

108 million have downloaded one game with 182 million accounts that have done FA?

Hmm. Something is fishy.

Didn't Fortnite make $1 billion dollars on consoles? Epic game stores is a flop.

 

[lyan]

Borderlands 2 has sold 11 million+ on Steam so I think Gearbox are a bit disappointed with that number. But it's by far and away the biggest true Epic Store exclusive, so equivalent to 2 million $60 games sold across all the other games seems like an ok result to me.

Well most of that 11million are probably 75% off at 5bucks which they do pretty frequently.
People claim their 12% model is unsustainable but if they are still making money, albeit at a low margin, then I don't personally care how little the billionaire is making with his capital to give me some free games and competition.

 

[Woo-Fu]

So is the shopping cart implemented yet?

It is cheaper to buy exclusives than it is to add features to their storefront. I'm not sure how the math works on that, though, you'd have to ask Tim Sweeney.

Well most of that 11million are probably 75% off at 5bucks which they do pretty frequently.
People claim their 12% model is unsustainable but if they are still making money, albeit at a low margin, then I don't personally care how little the billionaire is making with his capital to give me some free games and competition.

It doesn't matter if you personally care. It matters if the developers/publishers care. Borderlands 3 selling roughly 20% as many copies as Borderlands 2 is something I suspect 2K cares a great deal about.

 

[Graciaus]

Considering it doesn't say profit numbers that's a spin way to say they are probably losing money.

I don't see how this store survives without some major changes.

 

[Siri]

Steam needs the competition. Hopefully Epic will have continued success. The Steam exclusives, which have been legion for more than a decade, have been unbearable. I despise Steam, but I’ve been forced to buy games from them because that was the only way.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

Considering it doesn't say profit numbers that's a spin way to say they are probably losing money.

I don't see how this store survives without some major changes.

It can't, it's unsustainable, also you have to factor in what they've been paying to publishers and developers for timed exclusivity which eats into every dollar of spend. The whole model and store is a crapshoot.

Steam needs the competition. Hopefully Epic will have continued success. The Steam exclusives, which have been legion for more than a decade, have been unbearable. I despise Steam, but I’ve been forced to buy games from them because that was the only way.

Steam doesn't need competition because they're not doing anything wrong. They sell games, they coined the "Game Sale", offer a ton of tools and features to developers, have taken it upon themselves to largely spearhead VR advancement with open source software for compatibility, offer class leading features, services, perks and quality of life entitlements to their users and they do it at no additional cost.

Steam doesn't have 'exclusives', Valve doesn't pay people to release games on their platform. If that's the only place the developer or publisher decided to release a game then that is purely their decision. Valve has no competition, and they haven't spun out of control, they've kept themselves reigned in perfectly fine.

 

[ethomaz]

$250 million ≠ 250 million $60 copies of games

Who said it is $60 copies of games lol

World War Z - $1.2m
Borderlands 3 - $2.3m

Where is the others $246 million?

People spent $246m in 3rd-party games that are not World War Z and Borderlands 3... which ones? Epic give a lot of games free too so they did no get these $60.... just what the gamer spend inside the game.

 

[lyan]

It is cheaper to buy exclusives than it is to add features to their storefront. I'm not sure how the math works on that, though, you'd have to ask Tim Sweeney.


It doesn't matter if you personally care. It matters if the developers/publishers care. Borderlands 3 selling roughly 20% as many copies as Borderlands 2 is something I suspect 2K cares a great deal about.

Well we will see, if they manage to get more exclusives in this year then it would seempublishers prefer the upfront sales more.

 

[mcz117chief]

What a self roast, lol. Reminds me of Warren's native DNA test.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Well we will see, if they manage to get more exclusives in this year then it would seempublishers prefer the upfront sales more.

Or it'll be like some of those exclusives last year, either take the money up front or go broke. Have to remember these deals aren't just about a better cut, some of them are about money up front and guarantees to cover at least some number of sales. Probably very attractive to any developer hanging on by a shoestring.

 

[Celcius]

I’ll just be glad when they stop paying devs to makes games exclusive to their store.

 

[bati]

Ngl, after all these free games I'm now far more inclined to actually run the EGS launcher, but I've yet to buy anything there. I still default to steam, even if I have to wait a year - which is actually more of a solution than a problem for me right now because I don't have much gaming time.

 

[GHG]

Haters will continue to hate. Companies which know how to create a good business model will continue to make money.

More competition, more choices, customers will follow what’s better for them.

Their entire business model is Fortnite and paying devs ridiculous sums of money to prevent certain games appearing on Steam for a specified period of time. The latter is not competition, it's bribery and is classified as such in many industries.

Let's see how long this lasts and whether they will get round to fleshing out the store/platform to make it a sustainable place for people to purchase and play games. Right now they have a lot of catching up to do in that respect.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Epic has a 12% cut, which means they earned 30 million dollars.
From that cut, they paid 23 million dollars during their sales (which they initially said wouldn't happen).
That leaves 7 million dollars profit.
They paid 10.5 million dollars for Control's exclusivity



In the full graph, The Division 2 is one of their top games. This and Breakpoint underperformed so bad Ubisoft went back to the drawing board with all their upcoming titles. Anno 1800, which was Ubisoft's only success story this year, is not on the list.

This store is a fucking disaster lmao

 

[GHG]

Epic has a 12% cut, which means they earned 30 million dollars.
From that cut, they paid 23 million dollars during their sales (which they initially said wouldn't happen).
That leaves 7 million dollars profit.
They paid 10.5 million dollars for Control's exclusivity



In the full graph, The Division 2 is one of their top games. This and Breakpoint underperformed so bad Ubisoft went back to the drawing board with all their upcoming titles. Anno 1800, which was Ubisoft's only success story this year, is not on the list.

This store is a fucking disaster lmao

That's also not including whatever they are paying publishers for the free games.

We all know if it wasn't for Fortnite they wouldn't be able to do any of this.

 

[manfestival]

The stat of gamers downloading one game is super interesting because there are so many free games. There is no direct correlation to something super positive other than "hey they are using our system." I guess that is important to some investors and others but for most... not important at all.

I do say that I caved and used the opportunity of the $10 voucher to buy RDR 2. I also installed into the breach as well(it was free and the game is awesome). I am curious as to what the breakdown was of profit for my purchase of RDR 2. I ultimately paid $38 for the game. So is the 12% profit from the $48 or is it based off of the $38 and they ate the $10 or whatever else?

 

[lyan]

Or it'll be like some of those exclusives last year, either take the money up front or go broke. Have to remember these deals aren't just about a better cut, some of them are about money up front and guarantees to cover at least some number of sales. Probably very attractive to any developer hanging on by a shoestring.

Hence I only mentioned publishers since they are more capable to afford looking at the bigger picture to see whether it is worth it.

 

[eot]

What's the level of the free games? I grabbed Subnautica when it was free, but immediately uninstalled the launcher. I checked now and it looks like random indie games I'd probably never play. Tbh I don't really want to pile up free games there because having your library split across launchers is a PITA. I'm way less likely to play something I've bought on a different storefront. For me the only reason to do it is if it's DRM free, so Humble or GoG.

 

[Heebie Jeebies]

The worst store and launcher still attracts over 100m users.

PC is officially dead, wrap it up.

 

[down 2 orth]

Note: "User" here means people using them for free games and then fucking off. I wouldn't be surprised if they lost money given all they spent only getting exclusive deals.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

lol when you actually break these numbers down... yikes

Meanwhile, over in Bellevue:

 

[Spukc]

Hayters gonna hayt

 

[EverydayBeast]

I have no problem with Epic games store, I don't think its the best but it never failed me.

 

[Endless Fluff]

The fact that they only made 250m from 3rd party sales with such a user base is quite telling. People don't buy games on the EGS and that puts into question all their claims that all them exclusive sold so well...

 

[IYAOYAS2019]

Here I am spending absolutely nothing on the Epic Game Store and reaping the benefits in the form of the free games that they give away.

 

[ethomaz]

The worst store and launcher still attracts over 100m users.

PC is officially dead, wrap it up.

I read that since 2000 lol

 

[Chiggs]

I’ve bought one game from that store, redeemed two, and the rest I downloaded for free.

Until they improve everything with their client, I will not buy anything else from them.

 

[DynamiteCop!]

I read that since 2000 lol

Relating to what?

 

[Alexios]

Epic has a 12% cut, which means they earned 30 million dollars.
From that cut, they paid 23 million dollars during their sales (which they initially said wouldn't happen).
That leaves 7 million dollars profit.
They paid 10.5 million dollars for Control's exclusivity



In the full graph, The Division 2 is one of their top games. This and Breakpoint underperformed so bad Ubisoft went back to the drawing board with all their upcoming titles. Anno 1800, which was Ubisoft's only success story this year, is not on the list.

This store is a fucking disaster lmao

Don't forget the payout to content creators. Also we don't know how many prepaid copies of every exclusive game they've actually sold for them to turn a profit on those 3rd party sales. But yeah even with all that rounded up to the most positive spin, it seems pretty bad. But let fanboys talk about how it's bigger than Steam all they want, it only goes against half of Epic's and Tim's own arguments about why the store exists with all that Steam monopoly bs, all the Steam sales are devaluing games bs and pretty much 90% of their posts (the remaining 10% being that, sure, it's technically competition, which is good, but they're doing a pretty bad job at it so far so nobody really benefits except in the case of some random indie game that potentially got Epic to overpay for the exclusivity and never even makes the prepaid sales targets, lol, free money for a flop).

 

[Derktron]

How can that be? Epic games store is bad. Lol this brings me joy to see so many people wrong.

 

[Codes 208]

The worst store and launcher still attracts over 100m users.

PC is officially dead, wrap it up.

Windows store still exists.

 

[vito_don_corleone_]

Their entire business model is Fortnite and paying devs ridiculous sums of money to prevent certain games appearing on Steam for a specified period of time. The latter is not competition, it's bribery and is classified as such in many industries.

Let's see how long this lasts and whether they will get round to fleshing out the store/platform to make it a sustainable place for people to purchase and play games. Right now they have a lot of catching up to do in that respect.

Fortnite is their current biggest revenue stream - that’s obvious. But:

1. Before Fortnite popularity explosion, they were just a “game engine company”. Epic Games store is yet another stream in their business diversification which means they are not fully dependent on it.
2. Some people point out this is a “piss poor revenue. It might be but don’t forget they came to the market completely dominated by a single company. Valve - as a private entity - does not have to disclose how much they make but some analysts say it’s in or about $4.5B per year. $680M for a someone trying to break a monopoly in a first year doesn’t suddenly seem so bad. Remember they claim this is above their forecasts/expectations
3. Their business model will continue to be free games/exclusives to attract customers and better revenue split/bigger cut to attract publishers. It seems to work now so I cannot why it wouldn’t in the near future.
4. They are owned by a big ass money Tencent which will continue pumping money into this little baby. Software distribution (games in this case) is a very simple and low fixed cost business. You just give someone an access to a piece of code which doesn’t even require any human or logistical process.

I understand there’s a hate towards Epic Store because it lacks some functionality (easy fixable) and people just being sentimental and got used to Steam, but I will repeat myself - why was having more choice ever a bad thing? We don’t want Sony to completely dominate console market, why would people want Gabe to be their only king and dictator?