Epic court documents reveal the billions Fortnite generates, how much it paid for store...

[midian182]

Why it matters: It's no secret that Fortnite brings in a lot of money for Epic Games, but the exact amount of revenue it generates hasn't been revealed—until now. The Apple vs. Epic legal battle has seen the release of a financial presentation from the latter, which shows that the battle royal title made more than $9 billion over two years.

Epic's document reveals some of the financial details of the private company. It shows that Fortnite generated a total of $9.17 billion in revenue across 2018 and 2019.

In 2018 alone, Fortnite's revenue was $5.48 billion, thanks to its 66.6 million monthly users. Those figures were down slightly to $3.71 billion and 65.1 million users in 2019. It was expected to make another $2.8 billion in 2020, despite a predicted further decline in the number of monthly players.

Fortnite is by far the biggest money-maker for Epic. Its other games made a combined $108 million during the same two-year period, while the Unreal Engine brought in $221 million. The Epic Games Store, meanwhile, generated $235 million across 2018 and 2019.

Courtesy of The Verge

Sticking with the Epic Games Store, we now know how much the company paid for some of the free games it offered: $11.6 million. In addition to revealing the amounts each individual license cost, the document also shows how many new users they attracted.

The Batman Arkham games were the most expensive giveaway for Epic, though the $1.5 million was probably worth the 613,912 new Epic accounts. Subnautica had the second-highest cost at $1.4 million. The underwater survival game led to the highest number of new Epic Games Store users for the time period: 804,052. That works out at $1.70 for every new user.

Epic handed over $50,000 or less for several games—Super Meat Boy, World of Goo, Canary, RIME—and paid nothing at all for Metro 2033 Redux. Sadly, there's no information on GTA V as it was a free offering outside of the time period. When given away in 2020, it proved so popular that it crashed the service.

After expenses, Epic made more than $5.6 billion in gross profit during the two years. For comparison, Apple's gross profit for fiscal years ending September 2016 to 2020 averaged $95.527 billion, illustrating how this case might be less "David vs. Goliath" and more "Goliath vs. an even bigger Goliath."

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89540-epic-court-documents-reveal-billions-fortnite-makes-how.html

 

[m4a4]

As long as Epic is pushing for better rules for all, I will side with them (and because I do genuinely see Apple's control on iOS as anti-competitive and anti-consumer).
Especially since I've seen and had to deal with the BS that Apple puts devs through just to access the market.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Tesla has been very profitable for years if you only look at gross profits as well (more so than Epic). The issue with gross profit as a metric are other costs to run the business, not associated with revenue generation, also called operating expenses (ie. R&D, selling, general and administrative costs). In addition, there are miscellaneous expenses such as taxes and interest expenses. After all this, Apple's 5 year net income average is actually $53 billion a year, which is still enormously high. Epic is mainly a software developer so their margins are likely much higher, but I'd rather see this information than guess.

 

[terzaerian]

As long as Epic is pushing for better rules for all, I will side with them (and because I do genuinely see Apple's control on iOS as anti-competitive and anti-consumer).
Especially since I've seen and had to deal with the BS that Apple puts devs through just to access the market.

My only regret is that there isn't a way for both parties to lose a court case, as either of them winning is unpalatable.

 

[Irata]

I‘d love to see the same numbers for Apple‘s app store.

 

[cliffordcooley]

My only regret is that there isn't a way for both parties to lose a court case, as either of them winning is unpalatable.

You see this as Epic only fighting for themselves. While that is true. If they win, they will be winning for every creator in the store.

 

[cap87]

Epic is fighting for themselves, how can anyone be genuinely convinced this is done in consumers best interest? There’s no tangible benefit for you and me, it’s all a gigantic waste of money that could very well be invested somewhere else.

Have you actually developed and published an application? I have and the hardest part is developing it. What about publishing? A piece of cake and it takes 5 days at most to get it approved.

People love drinking the cool aid but how many actually know what the process looks like? Epic is going to get wrecked and they know it, hence why they tried to keep it from getting to the court.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Have you actually developed and published an application? I have and the hardest part is developing it. What about publishing? A piece of cake and it takes 5 days at most to get it approved.

Take your blinders off !

 

[cap87]

Take your blinders off !

Blinders? Nah, I’m making money from the app store. I don’t go around wedding a company based on a mere promise that might not materialize once they switch everyone in their PR department or our Sweeney overlord has a change of heart.

You people are free to put him on a pedestal though. Not like it’ll change anything.

 

[terzaerian]

Blinders? Nah, I’m making money from the app store. I don’t go around wedding a company based on a mere promise that might not materialize once they switch everyone in their PR department or our Sweeney overlord has a change of heart.

You people are free to put him on a pedestal though. Not like it’ll change anything.

Sweeney is equally as disgusting as Apple's walled garden, not the least because he has no intent to actually dethrone them, just to replace them. As for the convenience offered by Apple's ecosystem, it's a mirage, an illusion maintained by outsourcing management of and responsibility for your own devices and software to someone else. It all seems fine until that someone decides something that harms you, but by then, it's too late.

 

[m4a4]

Have you actually developed and published an application? I have and the hardest part is developing it. What about publishing? A piece of cake and it takes 5 days at most to get it approved.

I do, and that's why I said what I said. The Appstore has far more draconian rules than it should for such a big platform. And there are plenty of examples of Apple abusing it's publishing powers on the platform (they aren't stumbling into antitrust suits for nothing).

As cliffordcooley said, take your blinders off. Especially since you think there are no tangible benefits for the devs or consumers.

 

[poohbear]

And Fortnite is a "free to play" game. lol 9 Billion dollars from a free to play game?! Good for them, and good for them for shaking up the industry with their own game sales platform. More competition is a good thing.

 

[terzaerian]

And Fortnite is a "free to play" game. lol 9 Billion dollars from a free to play game?! Good for them, and good for them for shaking up the industry with their own game sales platform. More competition is a good thing.

Epic's long-term goal isn't to compete, it's to remove other competitors from the marketplace. We already got a preview of this during their blitz into PC gaming in 2019 when they bought dozens of timed exclusives. That's not competing on features or value, that's using money - in this case, investments from the scabrous likes of Tencent - to bludgeon the market into using your platform. They are not heroes or even the good guys in this court case, merely the lesser evil. And I've had enough of rooting for the lesser evil.

 

[defaultname365]

Wow, those numbers are insane... incredibly lucrative. No surprise big companies want you to pay for all the extra goodies.

 

[Ravey]

Basically Fortnite is for Epic what Counter strike was for Valve back in the day. It put them where they needed to be to compete. I wish they could of just figured this out back when Unreal Tournament was still a big thing. I miss that game!

 

[Watzupken]

The numbers show the decline in Fortnite's profit which is also consistent with them wanting to find other avenues to earn more and try to turn to profit in 2023/ 2024. In my opinion, both companies are only interested in protecting their revenue/ profit, and the main objective is really for the "welfare" of consumers as EPIC infamously like to claim. Just because they can't grow their "territory" so they try to get the courts to do their work since they are too small to bulldoze over the likes of Apple.

 

[Watzupken]

Sweeney is equally as disgusting as Apple's walled garden, not the least because he has no intent to actually dethrone them, just to replace them. As for the convenience offered by Apple's ecosystem, it's a mirage, an illusion maintained by outsourcing management of and responsibility for your own devices and software to someone else. It all seems fine until that someone decides something that harms you, but by then, it's too late.

Sadly, anyone at the commanding seat will only look after their own interest. If EPIC managed to get their way and end up as the market leader, I don't think they will do anything different from the likes of Steam, Apple or Google. EPIC is trying to get to this position on borrowed time and money at this point in time. They are just dumping investors' money for time exclusives, free games, and to pay for costly legal fees. I am not surprise if they start raising funds again in the near future.

Objectively speaking, I will not want to do business with EPIC because they have very low business etiquette, I.e. agree on a contract, try to circumvent the terms in the contract, and then claim that they are doing this for gamers when caught. Any of their business partners should be wary of them because this company may someday turn around to bite them. Having said that, I don't disagree that Apple charges too much on the developers for peddling their wares on the App Store, and there are no cheaper options in the Apple ecosystem by the way for consumers.

 

[Aceseven]

I hope epic loses and loses badly, and I dont even really like apple.

I understand the reason epic is fighting and still hate them, all they want is more money and want it without paying the gatekeeper, they know how many iphones are there for the taking and it makes them sick they cant abuse it.

is apple much better? nope but I honestly dont care, devs know what apple is bringing to the table, so either accept it and hope your whatever it is app is good enough to become or great or get back to the idea board.

also the fact theyre making that much money from a free to play game is sad on multiple levels, looks bad on gamers who balk at legit complete good games that are apparently to much at 60 or dollars while burning what? thousands for this drivel, and it looks bad on devs for pushing this digital crack on those dumb gamers.

this entire ordeal is nothing but losers really.