Epic Games Store has generated $680 million since in its first year, with the platform’s exclusives having “driven the majority of revenue so far”.
Talking to GameDaily.biz, Epic Games Store General Manager, Steve Allison, explained that growth and revenue created by the store is “ ahead of our early expectations”. He noted that exclusives account for 90% of all the store’s new releases, and are the main provider for Epic’s revenue despite strong performance from non-exclusive games.
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“Exclusives have been critical in gaining momentum in the presence of a competitor that began 2019 with more than 90% market share,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney told GameDaily.biz. “Securing exclusives for Epic means we can significantly assist developers with product funding and invest in marketing and awareness knowing that these efforts bring in new customers to our store, rather than just sending more business to the incumbent.”
Epic promises that “tons” of exclusives are heading to the Epic Game Store in 2020, indicating that its strategy is here for at least the foreseeable future.
The $680m revenue comes from the 108 million PC customers that use the Epic Games Store. Those users have also claimed more than 200 million free games, thanks to Epic having offered 73 games free of charge over 2019. The company plans to continue offering free games in 2020, too.
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The company’s revenue figures also relate to actual spending by customers, without any discount coupons included. Epic reports that $23 million in discounts was funded by the company in the period.
Last year Tim Sweeney explained that the company’s intentions with EGS exclusives was to disrupt the status quo in games retail. Currently, PC gaming is dominated by Valve’s Steam platform, which takes a higher cut of profit from sales away from developers than Epic does. Sweeney has said that Epic would end exclusivity deals if Valve commits to offering developers a better return on their profits.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.
Source: IGN.com Epic Games Store Exclusives 'Critical' To 0m Earned So Far