Each month you’ll be able to go on the Epic Video games Retailer and snag a normally fairly respectable sport for completely free. It’s not clear if this largesse is meaningfully transferring the needle within the firm’s battle to ascertain itself as a competitor to Steam, however it’s definitely a pleasant bonus. And after making a gift of $2,229 price of free video games throughout everything of 2024, the Fortnite maker reiterated that it has no plans to cease the giveaways anytime quickly.
“Our Free Video games Program has continued to ship PC favorites to new audiences for the fifth 12 months operating,” the corporate wrote in a brand new recap of stats from the final 12 months. “Epic gamers stocked their libraries with over $2,000 USD price of nice PC titles throughout 89 giveaways. This system is just not slowing down and can proceed in 2025, on each PC and cellular.”
2024’s free Epic video games included Management, The Callisto Protocol, Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and tons extra previous and up to date releases, from small indies to big-name blockbusters. Epic reviews that 595 million free video games have been claimed through the 12 months. Previously, the corporate has revealed that such giveaways can value it tens of thousands and thousands. And the library Epic Video games Retailer customers can amass this manner is greater than sufficient to theoretically maintain them busy till they die.
However elsewhere, the information reveals that Epic Video games Retailer remains to be primarily a automobile for present Epic-owned and -operated hits like Fortnite and Rocket League. Each have been within the prime 5 most-played video games on the platform, alongside Genshin Affect, Honkai: Star Rail, and Grand Theft Auto V. The corporate reported $1.09 billion spent by 295 million PC gamers on the Epic Video games Retailer final 12 months, however solely $255 million of that went to third-party video games. For comparability, Microsoft estimated Valve’s annual income at over $6 billion again in 2021.
So the Epic Video games Retailer remains to be very a lot a Fortnite launcher with a ton of different cool stuff grafted onto it, however it’s definitely not simply a Fortnite launcher. And with that in thoughts, the corporate additionally signaled what’s forward for its digital storefront in 2025. The roadmap contains an overhaul of discoverability, new social options, the addition of pre-loading and a brand new obtain supervisor, in addition to the power to lastly present video games to different folks.
All of that is being accomplished with the intent to seamlessly combine it throughout an Epic Video games Retailer cellular app as the corporate lobbies regulators the world over to drive iOS and Android to play good with it. We’ll see if, as that grand imaginative and prescient comes nearer to being a actuality, the Epic Video games Retailer lastly turns into a extra central drive to be reckoned with in PC gaming. For now, it’s nonetheless a terrific place to snag tons of cool video games without spending a dime.
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