Epic Games Store is Doing Better, Though It Still Relies on Giveaways

Epic Games has wrapped up 2021. Progress is undeniable, and Tim Sweeney's team does not intend to drop the pace. This is to be helped by further innovations on the platform.

IN A NUTSHELL:

Epic Games Store has shared a summary of 2021;
EGS gained new users and a lot of games (the catalog expanded twofold compared to 2020), and sales revenue increased by $140 million;
A self-publishing tool will be coming to EGS in 2022, along with many other smaller improvements;
We can expect free games this year as well, to be picked up weekly.

Epic Games Store shared a summary of 2021, which clearly shows that the platform is doing very well. Last year, it gained 30 million accounts (there are already 194 million in total). We also learned the amount that players spent in the store - it's 840 million dollars.

Financial success based on free games

It is worth noting the fact that of the quoted amount, $300 million was spent on games from developers other than Epic Games. So it looks like the platform still serves mainly as a launcher for Fortnite and a source of free titles. Nevertheless, $300 million is a larger amount than that obtained in 2020 (by 12%).

This is not the end of the successes of this young platform, launched only three years ago. Epic Games Store can also boast a constantly expanding catalog of games. In 2021, there were 917 titles on sale, which, as EGS notes, is almost double the 2020 result. Also worth noting is the fact that the platform will continue its initiative of weekly givenaways.

Here's a look at the free games EGS has given away throughout 2021, source: https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/news/epic-games-store-2021-year-in-review

Epic Games plans for 2022

As it usually happens in the summaries, there was also information on the plans for 2022. The biggest new feature coming to EGS in the coming months will be a self-publishing tool. It will help independent game developers to share their works with the platform's users (currently it was available for a closed group of beta testers).

Epic Games Store will also develop player profiles, enriching them with additional information. The download queue will also be improved and more manageable. There will be more features that will improve the launcher's operation, more on which can be found here.

Looking at the changes coming to EGS this year, it's hard not to get the impression that the platform is becoming ver similar to Steam. And while we can't expect it to suddenly dethrone Valve, it definitely has a chance to become one of the more interesting competitors.