The archive · Business Models · Strategic decision · 2018–2023
Epic Games Store gives away free games weekly to take on Steam — 68M users by 2022
Facing Steam dominance, Epic launched a rival store with a 12% cut and paid developers for a free game every week — 68M monthly users by 2022.
Epic Games
What it had to solve
In late 2018, Valve's Steam was the default place PC gamers bought games, taking 20-30% of every sale. Epic, flush with Fortnite's success and an estimated $1.25 billion October funding round, wanted a direct channel to players and a store with better economics — but a brand-new store with a tiny catalog had no way to pull users away from Steam by itself.
How it works
When the Epic Games Store launched in December 2018, it was a store with almost nothing in it taking on Steam, the platform where PC gamers already had their libraries, friends and habits. Epic's answer was not a loyalty program or a discount — it was to give games away. The store opened with an 88% revenue share for developers and a free game every two weeks, starting with Subnautica and Super Meat Boy.
The giveaway was a paid acquisition strategy with a twist: instead of spending on ads, Epic paid developers a flat fee to let their games be offered free, turning 'free' into revenue rather than charity for the developer. From June 2019 the store moved to one free game per week, with a major 'tentpole' title each month and smaller hidden gems in between — a cadence designed to make checking the store a habit.
The mechanics were announced bluntly: Steam took roughly 20-30% of sales, Epic took 12%, and CEO Tim Sweeney said the store existed because Epic 'always wanted access to a store with fair revenue-sharing that gives us direct access to our customers.' Fortnite's audience and a $1.25 billion funding round bankrolled the play.
By 2022 the numbers showed the model working: 68 million monthly active users and a 34.3 million peak of daily active users, with the smallest weekly giveaways drawing 6.5-7 million claims and the largest 20-25 million. Epic said third-party spending reached $355 million in 2022, up 18% year over year, and the weekly program was still running in 2023.
Why it lands
- A weekly free game gave players a concrete reason to install and keep opening a store with almost no library.
- Flat-fee deals made 'free' profitable for developers, so the program could scale without depending on charity.
- The rhythm turned the store into a habit — claim the game, browse the sale — rather than a one-time migration.
- A 12% cut versus Steam's 20-30% gave developers a financial argument for choosing Epic.
- Fortnite's audience and capital meant Epic could afford to buy the channel it did not yet have.
What it did
The free-game engine worked: the smallest weekly giveaways draw between 6.5 and 7 million claims and the biggest 20-25 million, while developers also report sales increases on Steam afterward. The store grew to a 2022 peak of 34.3 million daily active users and 68 million monthly active users, with $355 million in third-party spending in 2022, up 18% year over year.
What you can take
When a rival holds the default channel, buy the switching habit: a cadenced giveaway removes the cost of trying you, and each claimed game raises the cost of leaving.
Since then
The weekly giveaways ran continuously from 2019 through 2023, and the store grew from zero to 68 million monthly active users by 2022, with daily active users peaking at 34.3 million. Epic says developers see sales increases on both its store and Steam after a giveaway, and the pressure changed store economics: Valve reworked Steam's revenue share into 25% and then 20% tiers. Third-party spending on the store reached $355 million in 2022, up 18%, though total spending including Epic's own games fell 2% as Fortnite playtime declined after the pandemic peak.
Sources
- The Epic Games Store is now live
- Here Is The First Slate of Titles on Offer In The Epic Games Store
- Epic explains how it spends millions of dollars on free games
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