Epic Store gained 7 million new users during the GTA V giveaway

[Cal Jeffrey]

In a nutshell: The Epic v Apple trial continues to reveal secrets from both companies. The latest court document shows that the Epic Games Store's GTA V giveaway was a colossal success. They also outline Epic's plan to grow the marketplace's gross revenue through more of the same in what it calls "Operation Moonshot."

Last year when Epic was giving Grand Theft Auto V away in its game store, so many customers rushed to claim the freebie that it crashed the EGS servers. It was unclear how many claimed the uber-popular title that had already sold 120 million copies on multiple platforms. However, court documents from the Epic Games v Apple antitrust case reveal just how popular the giveaway was.

According to documents obtained by The Verge, more than 7 million users flooded the Epic Games Store to take advantage of the promotion. The game grab was bigger than any other EGS put out. The closest any other titles came was when Civilization 6 (2.5 million) and Subnautica (nearly 1 million) when they were free. A graph presented to the court shows just how much GTA V eclipsed all other free game offers (below).

Despite the boost to its monthly active users (MAU), EGS still has a long road ahead of it if it wants to catch up with the likes of Steam. When Epic announced its self-publishing closed beta this week, it revealed its current MAU count sits at 58 million, that's compared to Steams 120 million MAU.

As to that long road, the court document also revealed Epic's plan, dubbed "Project Moonshot," to achieve "$1 billion in gross revenue." The company looks to continue grabbing exclusives when it can and pushing free game promotions for the foreseeable future. However, it has recently struggled with a slowdown in growth.

Project Moonshot's goal is to fire a rocket ship of support that shoots the Epic Game Store past the 2020-22 years in current 5 year plan to $1BLN Gross Revenue by growing users & taking awareness well beyond much faster through investment in supporting the major beats that drive our business: Major launches, Free Games and Key Sale(s).

Last December, Epic reported its MAU count at 56 million. That means that in seven months, the EGS has only gained 2 million new users. In contrast, between December 2019 and December 2020, the count jumped by about 24 million MAU, an average of 2 million per month. So new converts have been substantially low for 2021 so far. It's highly unlikely EGS will add another 22 million by the end of the year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90883-epic-gained-7-million-new-egs-users-during.html

 

[Shadowboxer]

You mean 7 million people created accounts, claimed GTAV for free then maybe never logged in again?

I say maybe because I play more games on Epic than I do steam these days. Epics game sales are cheaper than all the other launchers! You can even use all of steams features with the games on Epic if you add the games as non steam games to your steam library .

 

[gigantor21]

You mean 7 million people created accounts, claimed GTAV for free then maybe never logged in again?

Well, that's not true. You also have people like me, who log in just to get the free games each month.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I personally don't see the thrill in GTA franchise.

 

[cuerdc]

Got it free last year only recently after new pc build have I been able to play it, alot of competition in the games launcher crowd, must be a data goldmine.

 

[TheBigT42]

I am a Epic store user. I use the Epic store to download the free games.

 

[nnguy2]

I'd buy games from EGS more if the UI doesn't suck. Locating/moving games and tracking achievements system is terrible.

 

[Gars]

I was on Battlefront - sigh
sins I cant launch their 'epic launcher', I don't bother anymore

 

[hahahanoobs]

You mean 7 million people created accounts, claimed GTAV for free then maybe never logged in again?

I say maybe because I play more games on Epic than I do steam these days. Epics game sales are cheaper than all the other launchers! You can even use all of steams features with the games on Epic if you add the games as non steam games to your steam library .

Do they still have the coupons you can use over and over?
I did it once to get Control and Chivalry II, but I haven't got a coupon since.

 

[Xclusiveitalian]

I claimed all the good Epic Games but honestly Epic Store completely s***s. It doesnt even have basic features. I have no plans to ever buy or even play the free games I claim, idk why I keep claiming them. Steam is better in everyway. Better deals, mod support, etc. It's not even close.

 

[Watzupken]

New users added is very loosely correlated to sales here. Most users barely buy anything from EPIC store. Since starting my account few years back, I’ve only bought a game, and got 5 or 6 free games. I see no point getting a free game when I know I won’t play it. Just clutter the game library. In fact, I rarely install the launcher as it is a CPU resource hog.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Do they still have the coupons you can use over and over?
I did it once to get Control and Chivalry II, but I haven't got a coupon since.

Ha, yeah I think so. Actually the last time I bought a game on Epic there were no coupons. But the game I bought - Fenyx Immortals Rising (Don’t buy it, it’s a poor mans breath of the wild!) was £22 and on Uplay it was £32.