The Epic Games Store recently unveiled its 2025 annual performance report, highlighting a period of remarkable expansion and strategic advancements. The platform experienced a substantial surge in consumer spending on games from external developers, alongside achieving an unprecedented milestone in its monthly active user base on PC. These achievements underscore Epic's growing influence in the digital game distribution landscape.
Growth and Financial Performance
In 2025, the Epic Games Store witnessed an impressive 57% increase in spending on third-party titles, signaling strong player engagement and a vibrant ecosystem for external game creators. The platform also reached a new high of 78 million monthly active users on PC, demonstrating its expanding reach and popularity among gamers. Despite a minor decline in total gameplay hours compared to the previous year, hours spent on third-party games specifically grew by 4%, indicating a focused shift in player interest. Financially, the Epic Games Store boosted its overall revenue by 6%, reaching a significant $1.16 billion.
These figures emphasize Epic's commitment to fostering a developer-friendly environment, particularly through its competitive revenue-sharing model. Unlike some industry counterparts that implement tiered revenue cuts, Epic maintains a consistent 12% fee across all sales. Furthermore, a new initiative launched in June 2025 eliminated fees on the initial $1 million in sales for developers, providing substantial support to smaller studios. Epic's continued advocacy for developers also extends to its support for alternative payment systems, allowing creators to use their own methods without additional fees, a stance championed by CEO Tim Sweeney in his long-standing critique of conventional digital storefront practices.
Enhancing User Experience and Future Initiatives
While celebrating its successes, Epic Games candidly addressed areas for improvement, notably the user experience of its game launcher. Both CEO Tim Sweeney and General Manager Steve Allison openly acknowledged the launcher's perceived clumsiness and committed to a significant overhaul. This planned rebuild aims to enhance responsiveness, reduce loading times, and improve overall stability, directly addressing a common point of feedback from the user community.
Looking ahead, Epic is set to introduce an innovative program in early 2026 designed to leverage the immense marketing power of Fortnite. This initiative will offer players a Fortnite cosmetic item and a matching avatar for their account profile with the purchase of participating games on the Epic Store. Initial partners for this program include prominent developers such as Capcom, miHoYo, Pearl Abyss, S-Game, MintRocket, and Kakao Games. This strategic move is expected to further drive game sales and integrate the Epic Games Store ecosystem more deeply with the popular Fortnite franchise, potentially attracting a broader audience and strengthening the platform's competitive position.
