If you happen to be wondering exactly how it is that Epic Games makes money now that Unreal Engine is free until a certain percentage of turnover profit (and with the Epic Games Store spending so much cash on giveaways, exclusives and lower prices…) then look no further than Epic’s who-knew-how-popular-it-would-be-game, Fortnite.
During the most recent legal battle between Apple and Epic, a whole bunch of company papers including financials, have been made public and the latest batch demonstrates why Epic is pushing so much effort into Fortnite. Since its launch the game has made the company over 9 billion dollars. Yes, you coughed that right, 9 billion. Let that sink in for a moment before we take a look at that breakdown…
According to the financials, in 2018 when Fortnite was released it made Epic a startling $5.4 billion with 2019 bringing in $3.7 billion. During the testimony Epic CEO Tim Sweeney noted that Epic had made another $5.1 billion in gross revenue in 2020.
So while it has been revealed in documents released last month that the Epic Game Store has currently spent $444 million in securing exclusives with a consistent loss in revenue from 2019 to 2020, that loss is nothing compared to what Fortnite – adding to the company’s overall gross revenue – is bringing in.
You can take a look at the companies financials here.
