Epic Games Store attracts more than 100 million users in first year

Shawn Knight

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In brief: The Epic Games Store had a solid first year as the developer revealed on Tuesday. The digital video game storefront now has 108 million PC customers that collectively spent $680 million over the course of 2019, $251 million of which was dedicated to third-party PC games.

The developer further revealed that it has fully funded over $23 million in coupons and discounts.

The most popular titles on the platform, in no particular order, include World War Z, Borderlands 3, Metro Exodus, Satisfactory, Dauntless, Untitled Goose Game, The Outer Worlds, Control and The Division 2.

Free game offerings are also popular on the Epic Games Store. Since its inception, there have been 73 free offerings totaling $1,455 in value that have been claimed more than 200 million times. And they’re not usually crap games, either, as the average user score across the freebies is 80 percent.

Best yet, Epic announced that its weekly free game program will be continuing throughout 2020. Each week, you’ll be able to score a free game from the store and once it has been claimed, it is yours to keep forever.

The Epic Store is off to a great start but it has a long way to go before it rivals Valve’s Steam. In 2017, Steam generated a whopping $4.3 billion, half of which came from just 100 games.

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No way the most popular titles are the ones you can't play anywhere else on PC, shocking, truly amazing and only proving that purchasing exclusivity is a truly viable solution /sarc off You can change the title from attracts to forces/ or traps, would be more fitting for the B$ Epic is making people do.
 
Tbf I am counted as one of those people, have over 50 games on epic store (none paid for because they literally give them away) and I haven't actually played any....

Well TBH I bought Borderlands3, The Division 2, MechWarrior 5 and TBH all of them were a bit mess, while I do have all the free stuff, the application is garbage and some of the games like MW5 are just unpolished garbage.
 
No way the most popular titles are the ones you can't play anywhere else on PC, shocking, truly amazing and only proving that purchasing exclusivity is a truly viable solution /sarc off You can change the title from attracts to forces/ or traps, would be more fitting for the B$ Epic is making people do.
Valve will simply go back to making games if they get desperate enough, Alex HL is clearly meant to be a system seller for "Index VR systems" and tbf VR has only really been viable on steam. Valve is clearly banking on VR being the future of PC gaming.
 
Tbf I am counted as one of those people, have over 50 games on epic store (none paid for because they literally give them away) and I haven't actually played any....

Same here. Not one paid game on Epic Games, but around 30 or so freebies I've picked up since it opened. Unlike Steam where I have several thousand dollars invested in my game collection and still invest more when something I want comes out. I have been using Steam since Half Life and Counterstrike were the only good things on it. And I will be using it up until the day they either close it down, or I die.

Edit: I have played ONE of the Epic Games Store games I got for free and had fun with it. Surviving Mars was a lot of fun in a RTS that lacked combat, kinda a new thing for me. But only played it for a couple of weeks until a friend gifted Battletech to me on Steam, and I promptly forgot all about Surviving Mars, lol.
 
Valve will simply go back to making games if they get desperate enough, Alex HL is clearly meant to be a system seller for "Index VR systems" and tbf VR has only really been viable on steam. Valve is clearly banking on VR being the future of PC gaming.

I think VR's potential is more in it's ability to pull in non-gamers. VR is the only gaming platform where I can give the controllers to non-gamers and they can play because the controls are natural. I don't think it will replace flat gaming but it will certainly expand the market.
 
Tbf I am counted as one of those people, have over 50 games on epic store (none paid for because they literally give them away) and I haven't actually played any....
Same here, paid for nothing. Though I've played 5 of their free games and the indie ones have been fine. I don't do much FPS though, because I'm trash at those.
 
Yup. All the games I have on the EGS are free (with no intention of spending money on it).

So, I hope they're fine with throwing their Fortnite money at these devs to compensate for all these freebies lol
 
Yes. I hope they don't pay for the stuff people click on, and whatnot. I just pick the games which seem that couldn't, and wouldn't be free otherwise. I think I haven't played one... I would install batman just to see the nvidia Physics in action. One game that seems to be worthwhile looking into, is The Cycle. I also would play division 2 somewhere in the distant future if they implement a stronger mp.

I think their intention is to make you feel as if your collection of games is valuable enough for you, in order to add to the list, as well, and to keep being invested (even emotionally) on the platform.

These platforms are way too successful for what they actually offer to people.
Anyone can sell stuff, right? But what do you give back in return from your success? EGS might have a bit of the vision of those like google play store and apple, where there are so many creative games developers spend time and ideas into... so there, you would literally gift other people as you're sustaining the platform... while Steam and EGS might just be successful because of the legacy... but imo they aren't building strong and steady as the mobile platforms.
 
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I understand that its cool to bash Epic store (and they kinda deserve some of it) but really all these comments talking about how they never purchased a game from Epic are forgetting simple facts mentioned in the article I.e. Epic store users spent $680 million while Steam users spent $4.3 billion. This is very impressive considering that its the first year of Epic and they already made sales of approx 15% of Steam!
We finally have some real competition in pc gaming arena which means more tie ups, lower margins and prices, console games ports and other benefits. If only people stopped being so defensive of mega rich corporations out of some misplaced sense of loyalty it will be swell.
 
I don't understand how having a competitor for Steam is bad. I just recently purchased RDR2 on Epic, when it was on sale for $37 with the coupon deal. That was my first and only purchase and I would do it again if there was a game I wanted at a good price. I have played some of the freebies they gave out. Some of the giveaways have been really good games, if not the latest AAA titles. Their software works fine and the UI is better than Steam. I don't get the hate.
 
Um, that's an average of $6.30 in sales per PC customer. Truly a solid first year for Epic!
I'm one of the 108m PC customers. I have purchased a total of 1 game (Metro Exodus) which cost 60 euro ($67). So I have pumped way above the average money into Epic - I need to rest for a few years and recover.
 
I don't understand how having a competitor for Steam is bad. I just recently purchased RDR2 on Epic, when it was on sale for $37 with the coupon deal. That was my first and only purchase and I would do it again if there was a game I wanted at a good price. I have played some of the freebies they gave out. Some of the giveaways have been really good games, if not the latest AAA titles. Their software works fine and the UI is better than Steam. I don't get the hate.
There are other competitors like Windows, GOG, GMG and even Rockstar. The last thing players wanted was a rich publishing house stepping in and stealing / monopolising new releases while offering no benefits to players.
 
I prefer Epic to steam at the moment, steam has absolutely stagnated for me, the deals they offer are usually just the same old games over and over again (currently Arma 3 again yawn). I also prefer that epic take a smaller cut than stream and that they offer way more free games and bigger discounts. A lot of people talk about steams free features but I use superior third party solutions for them (e.g. discord over steam voice) so I don’t really care if Epic doesn’t have these built in.

Although currently my favourite launcher is Xbox. The PC only version of the Xbox game pass it’s great, £3.99 a month and a really good library of games to play, including the new Halo MCC for PC, the outer worlds, Prey, Metro Exodus and more.
 
How many concurrent users?

I go to get the free games only. Their launcher is still too barebones for a 3rd party launcher though, almost depressing looking. Especially compared to Steam's wonderful redesign.
 
I already had an account with Epic. I didn't realize until just before Christmas. Years ago I downloaded Epic Unreal Engine Which is when I created an Epic account. I didn't realize it was the same account they were using with the store.
 
I think VR's potential is more in it's ability to pull in non-gamers. VR is the only gaming platform where I can give the controllers to non-gamers and they can play because the controls are natural. I don't think it will replace flat gaming but it will certainly expand the market.
I think it depends on the genre of game TBH, Horror games in particular or anything like Elder scrolls that relies on immersive elements only benefits from VR and as tracking gets more precise it's the one method that can match the precision of a mouse.

VR represents true 3d environments and honestly is the next leap as games have always progressed towards 3d realism it may not be in this decade, but at some point VR goggles will replace monitors especially for those tighter living spaces where you can't have the space for a desk area but instead just need 6x6feet of movement space in a room that you typically need anyways versus a coffee table.
 
I think it depends on the genre of game TBH, Horror games in particular or anything like Elder scrolls that relies on immersive elements only benefits from VR and as tracking gets more precise it's the one method that can match the precision of a mouse.

VR represents true 3d environments and honestly is the next leap as games have always progressed towards 3d realism it may not be in this decade, but at some point VR goggles will replace monitors especially for those tighter living spaces where you can't have the space for a desk area but instead just need 6x6feet of movement space in a room that you typically need anyways versus a coffee table.

I see desktops in the future most likely connecting to both VR and AR headsets. I think AR will replace every screen (including TV, tablet) in your house so long as the job isn't very heavy on computer resources. I expect that at some point we will have non intrusive, fashionable devices that project the screen in some fashion (whether is be directly on your eyeballs like Intel's prototype or otherwise). Of course, due to size constraints, this is why I believe AR will be limited in what it can do when you are connects to a desktop or some sort of compute brick. VR in the future I still see as being the high end of virtual reality devices. Something that you will get home and use whereas AR will be ubiquitous and used by everyone.

I do still believe that with all these AR / VR devices, "flat" games will still be made. As you mentioned, not every game benefits from VR / AR features.
 
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