Pretty low numbers and the most popular games are shit that was already gonna be popular anyways.
News Epic Games Store
- Thread starter Blizniak
- Start date
Last year was $680 million revenue total with $251 million of that being third party games.
I just feel like in a time with lockdowns, people asked to stay home and stuff they would see a huge growth like Steam did, but no apparently.
A quarter billion in 3rd party revenue doesn't seem great considering how many AAA titles they had exclusively on the store for a year. That's chump change for even one AAA game. I assume Ubisoft probably made more revenue from their AssCreed games on their store.
So literally no growth despite a year of lockdowns and working from home?
So literally no growth despite a year of lockdowns and working from home?
Oooof, that is even worse. Apologies, I misremembered the total. Wow, so stagnant spend all things considered.
Looking for the growth on the infograph feels almost like
Correct, freebies contributed to make the user number to go up but those users have not spend more money buying on EGS, so pretty much we can consider those users as "freebie hunters" or even accounts for resale in some cases, not all of course, but it's something that popularized with GTA V and thanks to Troy and BF2 it has been skyrocketed.
Wow those stats from Epic are bad, honestly I find it shocking that they published some of those numbers or didn't put more of a spin on it (though maybe this is the best spin they could put on it).
I think most of us had already pieced together that EGS wasn't doing too hot. These numbers are not a disaster but flat growth during a year in which everyone in the industry made bank has to be somewhat disappointing. I am curious about Sweeney's next move.
Last edited:
Tim will sue Valve for investing in PC gaming early when everyone else including Epic left.
I'm thinking Heart Machine are kicking themselves for taking that deal in 2018.
They pushed the self publishing tools aspect really hard in their press release, so I guess that's their major project. It's going to be funny when EGS opens the floodgates and the lack of discovery tools means that it's hard for anyone other than the big guys makes money. I wonder if there will be articles about the dire state of discoverability on EGS.
That 3rd party # is ridiculously low and basically no growth over the past 2 years I believe.
Don't even know what else they can do to make the customer base grow.
They literally gave away brand new games for free at launch this past year
I don't see myself ever spending $$$ on EGS. Even the coupon shit hasn't enticed me.
They need a new strategy very badly. Improved messaging and improvements to the store as well.
Don't even know what else they can do to make the customer base grow.
They literally gave away brand new games for free at launch this past year
I don't see myself ever spending $$$ on EGS. Even the coupon shit hasn't enticed me.
They need a new strategy very badly. Improved messaging and improvements to the store as well.
5% store revenue growth despite Covid and starting at a low number is bad.
1.5% own game revenue growth despite Covid and RL being added to EGS is bad.
User growth is impressive, but they have utterly failed on transforming them into paying customers as of now, which can be problematic. People that didnt pay for anythin (or pay a little) are not customers taht will stuck with you.
1.5% own game revenue growth despite Covid and RL being added to EGS is bad.
User growth is impressive, but they have utterly failed on transforming them into paying customers as of now, which can be problematic. People that didnt pay for anythin (or pay a little) are not customers taht will stuck with you.
I will point to my November post, expect them to open the store and call the day, their publishing brand will most likely be timed exclusive as they have seen people just don't buy there and that's it, timed exclusivities will decrease until it reaches zero.
Thats essentially what they said right? Opening the store, letting people self publish.
There's nothing else they can do, really. Exclusives didn't work, free games have stopped working and become a detriment, game publishing is cool but theres only so many games they can fund.
I worry they will try to go back to exclusives. Otherwise, I think they will mostly stay the course and try to make the store more open for publishing. Then maybe try to compete on pricing, but considering what we have seen of games available on multiple platforms, including Steam and EGS, it has still skewed towards Steam by a large margin.
That 3rd party # is ridiculously low and basically no growth over the past 2 years I believe.
Don't even know what else they can do to make the customer base grow.
They literally gave away brand new games for free at launch this past year
I don't see myself ever spending $$$ on EGS. Even the coupon shit hasn't enticed me.
They need a new strategy very badly. Improved messaging and improvements to the store as well.
I may have used the store if their opening gambit was not exclusives. Now I will likely never use them, but for even more reasons than this move alone.
I do not trust their push towards a vertical intergration in the game engine space. Additionally, having a company be a major funder, game engine dev, publisher, distributor, all in one is off putting. Everyone sits around and complains about Amazon, Apple, Google, Disney, and the like, but never consider how those companies have managed to gain such a stranglehold. Cue Epic entering the scene with loss leading strategies, frequent investment rounds, and a crafted narrative taking on Steam for the customer benefit, it just seems like they are planting seeds for future ambitions that so many other companies have followed.
I have never assumed Steam/Valve is my friend, but I also think Valve is a weird company in a sea of companies, especially tech companies. I am under no impression this will never change, especially if the Valve founders sell off or retire. They have just avoided following the same beaten path so far that Epic seems to have gleefully followed after the breakout success of UE4 and Fortnite.
I also do not trust Tim Sweeny when he says stuff like comparing his legal issues to civil rights issues, his comment on tech moderation when Apple removed Parler, constantly using the term tax to allude to something negative when he is a billionaire, and what not.
Lastly, my old Epic account was hacked. To be fair to Epic, it was before the store, but I tried Fortnite out around May 2018 and my account was hacked around June 2018, I added 2FA some around then when it was newly added as an option. Only to have my account accessed sometime in August or September 2018.
The fact that they still have the Ubi exclusivity + other big games came this year like Cyberpunk...and that 3rd party # was still really low. This past year was probably the biggest year ever for pc gaming so their numbers could have been worse.
Well they started pretty big this year with Hitman 3 but even that was a mess with how it was handled. I don't see many big games for them the rest of the year through the summer. I just really hope Japanese devs don't jump aboard their bs strategy. I can just sense some slimey shit with them and someone like Square Enix doing exclusives with FF7R.
Well they started pretty big this year with Hitman 3 but even that was a mess with how it was handled. I don't see many big games for them the rest of the year through the summer. I just really hope Japanese devs don't jump aboard their bs strategy. I can just sense some slimey shit with them and someone like Square Enix doing exclusives with FF7R.
Its pretty interesting that they have so few Japanese exclusives, I wonder if they haven't tried to go after them or devs/publishers just aren't interested.
SE got their toes wet putting DQ11 on EGS. They also courted Good-Feel with Monkey Barrels. I fully expect most publishers (Japanese and otherwise) will do concurrent Steam and EGS releases when the store opens up. I'd wager most of the revenue will still come from Steam, but EGS will be supplemental income.
It's all based in observations and my own data analysis, that's the most potential outcome I can predict based on their actions from 2019 and 2020
Yours will be a 2 part answer:
1 - Ubi deal is most likely ended at this point or at the very least is based in a number of games, so, this one is a big question mark.
2 - Don't worry about Square-Enix, I won't give much more details but expect the big ones to be multi-store and the little ones to be Steam only.
You are mostly correct here but only partially, check my second answer
Well I give them props for releasing such dire numbers lol.
People wondering how the pandemic didn't boost them like it did with everyone else while I'm thinking what if it did and this is still the result
People wondering how the pandemic didn't boost them like it did with everyone else while I'm thinking what if it did and this is still the result
I hadn't thought about that possibility lolPeople wondering how the pandemic didn't boost them like it did with everyone else while I'm thinking what if it did and this is still the result
I mean, THIS IS THE RESULT, it's not they it hasn't improved due to the pandemic, the result is that due to the pandemic they had this result but without pandemic it would have probably be worse.Well I give them props for releasing such dire numbers lol.
People wondering how the pandemic didn't boost them like it did with everyone else while I'm thinking what if it did and this is still the result
We just don't know what would have happened but it's easy to assume that the results might would have been an straight line or even a decline (in terms of revenue, not in terms of users thanks to the freebies)
i bet the press people will spin them as super positive anyway
with simple math, lol looking at the numbers
They have $1.65spent on 3rd parties per user per year
Last edited:
Guys, give it time! There's still at least 3 more years before Randy's prophecy comes true!
I'm surprised but very happy with the lack of growth on EGS. Not because I don't want Steam to have competition (on the contrary), but because I detest the way Epic tried to strong arm it's way into pc gaming by buying exclusives.
Crippling other storefronts instead of trying to build a better alternative is the most anti-consumer and anti-competitive way to compete. So I'm extremely happy that this strategy isn't working out for them (or so it seems, Epic can't be happy with this result).
On the other hand: the lack of huge exclusives like BL3 and RDR2 means more people are spending money on non-exclusive games on EGS. I'm curious how many of these purchases were with coupons.
Edit: it's incredible how the media (pc gamer, eurogamer etc) are completely ignoring the almost nonexistent growth in sales, while talking about a "huge growth" and "strong competitor for Steam". Incredible.
Crippling other storefronts instead of trying to build a better alternative is the most anti-consumer and anti-competitive way to compete. So I'm extremely happy that this strategy isn't working out for them (or so it seems, Epic can't be happy with this result).
On the other hand: the lack of huge exclusives like BL3 and RDR2 means more people are spending money on non-exclusive games on EGS. I'm curious how many of these purchases were with coupons.
Edit: it's incredible how the media (pc gamer, eurogamer etc) are completely ignoring the almost nonexistent growth in sales, while talking about a "huge growth" and "strong competitor for Steam". Incredible.
Last edited:
This is the biggest silver lining for EGS. I'd guess most of 2019's third party revenue was carried by Borderlands 3 and there was no exclusive in 2020 on the same level. At the same time, they still got simultaneous releases for games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Death Stranding and will presumably get even more titles of that caliber in 2021. They are building up a userbase that will spend money on games just on EGS and won't look at Steam. It'll be interesting to see what the third party sales are like next year once the store fully opens. It might be surprisingly good for them.
The problem of EGS in 2021 is getting a DAU / MAU growth of 100%+ and only getting a slight increase of 5% sales on the store DURING A PANDEMIC. Given that most gaming related stuff grew at 10%+ numbers despite expected decline (given new gen waiting), that not good.
I am not even sure you can say they are building a userbase taht will spend games just on EGS when their results show people would get games on EGS (700+M free games given away) but wont buy in there. Buying gams in the store with REAL MONEY is what actually ties users to something (as leaving something you got given away for free is not as impactful as something you paid for.
I am not even sure you can say they are building a userbase taht will spend games just on EGS when their results show people would get games on EGS (700+M free games given away) but wont buy in there. Buying gams in the store with REAL MONEY is what actually ties users to something (as leaving something you got given away for free is not as impactful as something you paid for.
Yeah so during pandemic Epic made 32 million USD from third party sales, of which about 16 million went on running the store and payment processing and stuff.
That is hilarious.
If it wasn't for Fortnite and Unreal, Epic would be bleeding money so hard...but they can keep subsidizing for years thanks to those.
But it is becoming clear that free games, coupons and even exclusivities are not really all that great at turning users into paying customers. Only better actual service will do that. And EGS is still utterly pathetic at being a service/platform for gaming.
That is hilarious.
If it wasn't for Fortnite and Unreal, Epic would be bleeding money so hard...but they can keep subsidizing for years thanks to those.
But it is becoming clear that free games, coupons and even exclusivities are not really all that great at turning users into paying customers. Only better actual service will do that. And EGS is still utterly pathetic at being a service/platform for gaming.
Another thing that might help third party sales on EGS in 2021 is if Steam International is blocked with the launch of Steam China. As far as I understand, Steam and EGS are both currently available in China without having to use a VPN. If Steam International gets blocked and EGS is still available, Chinese customers will likely take the path of least resistance and simply buy games on EGS.
I just checked, this is absolute bullshit. They only empaphise on the numbers they want, forgetting about the non-growth of total and 3rd party income.
How could this be called journalism. Some people have no shame.
Question : do you know how's Rocket League included ? Into Epic owned games or 3rd party ?
A large appeal of Steam to Chinese customers is that they can easily access games that aren't approved in China or will never be approved. There's no way something like RDR 2 would get past regulators. I'm sure Valve would love to run Steam International in China, but they probably don't have a say in the matter. Honestly I'm just spitballing a hypothetical situation where third party revenue on EGS could see a big increase in 2021, but at the expense of Steam.
"Epic has released stats for the Epic Games Store - and they show impressive growth. "
Here you are assuming that Steam will be completely banned in china while it is most likely that both Steam china and Steam WW will co-exist together, one as the official service (in which chinese users will be able to play things like Dota and CS:GO as they already do via modified launchers in china) and Steam WW as a grey area.
Pretty interesting to see which outlets are still completely sold out. So Eurogamer, PC Gamer, which other one?
The problem is that in a world where Steam International is banned in China, so would EGS. A lockdown of international markets in videogames in china wouldnt stop in Steam, but woudl extend to all of the gray market (given the harm to the international market for chinese indies). Steam China (and in teh future EGS China / whatever colalboration) are more about ensuring that their users feel safe rather than anything else.
Edit: Also the EuroGamer article is BS that talks about growth in everything and compared 2019 to 2020 number in everything but revenue (where it just says "growth") talk about bs.
Here's a few I found in a quick check :
Epic Games Store users claimed 749 million free games last year
Epic saw big boosts to its daily and monthly active user count.
Almost 750 million free games were claimed on the Epic Games Store last year
And other highlights from the platform's 2020 year-in-review.
www.pcgamer.com
The Epic Games Store is getting a lot more popular
Epic has released stats for the Epic Games Store - and they show impressive growth.
www.eurogamer.net
The Epic Games Store is still mostly about Fortnite
Epic Games Store's Year In Review shows a lot of growth in 2020 for Steam's main competitor.
www.rockpapershotgun.com
Epic Games Store surpasses 160 million customers
Over half of all the money spent on the Epic Games Store was on Fortnite.
www.shacknews.com
The Epic Games Store now has 160 million PC users
Games saw major growth in 2020, and the Epic Games Store was no exception
www.pcgamesn.com
The Epic Games Store gave away nearly 750 million free games in 2020
That's an astounding number, and it seems to prove that Epic's gamble on freebies has largely paid off. Those free games – there were 103 unique giveaways...
www.techspot.com
The Epic Games Store Has A Massive User Base
The Epic Games Store has just revealed its figures and player base for 2020, and the store is rapidly closing the gap with Steam.
www.kotaku.com.au
2020 Was a Spectacular Year for Epic Games Store
We know how much we spent on games on Epic Games Store in 2020, and how many accounts have already been created on the platform. All thanks to the latest report.
www.gamepressure.com
Epic Games Store Players Up, But Spending Flat in 2020, Catalog to “Rapidly Expand” in 2021
Epic Games Store attracted new players with free games in 2020, but not a lot of new spending, but things may change in 2021.
wccftech.com
Here's a critical article. It's the only one I've seen though.
I admit I'm being pessimistic about the future of Steam International in China. I hope I'm wrong.