Home Gaming The Epic Games Store made $680 million in its first year, proved that online boycotts don’t actually work

The Epic Games Store made $680 million in its first year, proved that online boycotts don’t actually work

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EGS-Money

If you were playing games on PC prior to 2019, it’s safe to say that you grabbed your game of choice through Steam. The digital distribution platform had evolved over the years, it was rich in features and it worked a treat when creating a massive library of games to buy and then forget about as you played more DOTA 2.

Along came the Epic Games Store last year, upsetting the status quo with a business model that favoured the publisher and also attracted a fair share of exclusive games along the way. The biggest spanner ever thrown into Valve’s dominance of the PC gaming market, Epic’s arrival has been both hailed as the best thing ever and criticised for a variety of reasons along the way. Has it been a profitable move for Epic so far then?

Hell yeah.

Epic’s disruption has resulted in the platform making a $680 million in gross revenue from its 108 million customers, which ain’t too shabby for a company that splits profits 88/12 with developers and publishers who host their games on those servers. “108M is the total number of Epic Games accounts which have specifically obtained the PC version of at least one product, whether free or paid,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said to Games Daily.

This is out of 300M total Epic accounts across all platforms including console and mobile. Epic Games Store third-party game revenue in 2019 is roughly 60% higher than our initial forecast at launch, and the pace of free game installs is several times higher than we originally expected. We are very happy with the outcome and grateful to our partners and customers.

Thanks to the tantalising offer of free weekly games on the platform, the Epic Games Store has managed to grab its fair share of customers who are ready to stick around for the long run as the digital shop attempts to grow throughout 2020. Those freebies will be a regular part of 2020  as well, with Epic compensating developers who take part in the promotion.

Graphic via Games Daily:

egs-infographic-overview

The overall impact of Epic then? The store may not be knocking down the gates of Steam just yet, but it has established a beachhead online that has proven to be successful thanks to their various policies. Even if online boycotts were actually effective, Epic wouldn’t be losing sleep over their storefront not making a dime, as the company is still hugely profitable in several other areas of the games industry. The EGS has its fans, a solid business strategy and plenty of exclusives lined up for 2020 that will no doubt see an increase in users and consumers.

Last Updated: January 15, 2020

24 Comments

  1. I claimed a bucket of free games from EPIC, and bough SW JFO for R181 on discount, so only played ONE game through EPIC.

    Competition is a good thing

    Reply

  2. Yozzie

    January 15, 2020 at 10:32

    Sure competition is good. But telling indie dev’s it’s either exclusive or a complete no go to even sell on EGS is still pretty scummy.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 15, 2020 at 10:32

      Yeah, that is pretty darn scummy

      Reply

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      January 15, 2020 at 10:32

      Seems to only be timed agreements though. Hades launched exclusively with EGS and is now on Steam, so it’s entirely possible the deals Epic made have a year attached to them

      Reply

      • Yozzie

        January 15, 2020 at 10:32

        Yes it’s usually 6 months or a year. But in the past some indie dev’s have pointed out that they would like to sell on both platforms and not have an exclusive time period and Epic just rejected the offer.

        Reply

        • Alessandro Barbosa

          January 15, 2020 at 10:32

          That’s different to a complete no go on other platforms though. I think it’s definitely fine for Epic to request initial exclusivity in return for the initial payout they give devs that launch on their store.

          Reply

    • Dresden

      January 15, 2020 at 23:03

      Makes sense. An indie gaming platform doesn’t want to share the indie games it has.

      *Still fucking salty over losing my save file for BL3.

      Reply

  3. Alessandro Barbosa

    January 15, 2020 at 10:32

    Competition is a good thing for the consumer, always, and Epic Games has had a killer first year I think. Especially when you take into account the free games and rousing endorsement of the indies developers they’ve helped secure titles for. Valve having to compete with them can only push both services to continually get better, so this pleases me.

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    January 15, 2020 at 10:32

    Didn’t spend a cent on their store, thanks for the free games though.

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 15, 2020 at 10:32

      Ja like you can still buy things in SA for cents 😛

      (yes I know plastic bags but honestly that is wasted money, rather carry your things like a madman)

      Reply

  5. Jacques Van Zyl

    January 15, 2020 at 10:32

    I got free games, I got Borderlands and I got some exclusives such as The Cycle to try out. Overall, I’m happy with how EGS has grown, and the platform is better than I thought even if some business practices are not.

    Overall 7/12 – still better than Origin.

    Reply

  6. CodeDisQus

    January 15, 2020 at 10:47

    Stoked for this, online boycott by biased fools are a bane of the internet! I personally got a bunch of free games and didn’t buy one lol (primarily because my backlog is too big to add more!)
    I hope they continue to grow and pressure Steam to new heights. In general I see next to NO downside of having EGS around. All those guys wearing their tinfoil hats complaining about chinese spying are also the same ones who use their google account for everything sooooooo…..

    Reply

    • Admiral Chief

      January 15, 2020 at 10:47

      I got 4 games from my Steam wishlist for free on EGS, so happy days for me!

      Reply

  7. UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

    January 15, 2020 at 11:27

    Firstly, it still needs a LOT of features before it truly becomes the platform I consider to use when a game is available everywhere.

    That said, it has the needed security to keep my stuff safe now and the prices are good. I take pretty much every single free game they try and give me as well. The fact that they are giving money to studios/devs to have exclusives is not the best, but it definitely has it’s positives (keeping indie dev office doors open etc).

    Overall they aren’t the evil thing everyone thought they were.

    In time I can see more of my stuff moving over to EGS, but only when the feature list increases.

    Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      January 15, 2020 at 11:42

      Yeah, this is how I feel. It’s an alright store. I’ve bought a few games from there, used the sales and deals, and grabbed the free games. I’d like more features etc, but I can also live without em.

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        January 15, 2020 at 11:42

        I mean, I got Star Wars on there for R170~ on the special. No way I would ever buy it on Origin.

        I have it installed and I keep tracking the progress. I feel it will be more of a benefit that it will hurt the gaming industry.

        Reply

        • CodeDisQus

          January 15, 2020 at 11:58

          I agree 100%……anything to improve the developers chance of success, I like!

          Reply

    • HairyEwok

      January 15, 2020 at 12:20

      If i remember correctly, that money given to indie devs need to be paid back in full before they can bank on it themselves.

      Reply

      • UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy

        January 15, 2020 at 13:12

        I guess even in this case I am kinda okay with it. They can still just turn down the offer.

        They can still just go to Steam, which is why bigger, but then will need to go with the 30% cut of Steam and not get the 12% of EGS.

        Even with that EGS deal that would get 88% of the income (which will help them pay off the “loan” quicker)

        Reply

  8. Caveshen Rajman

    January 15, 2020 at 11:58

    Shouldn’t the third party stat be the more accurate measure of its success? It’s still a ridiculous amount of money.

    Reply

  9. HairyEwok

    January 15, 2020 at 12:35

    $1455 given away freely on average per user….. That’s a lotta money.

    Reply

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