Epic says its Games Store has 160M+ PC users, up from 108M in 2019, with DAUs up 192% YoY to 31.3M; gamers spent $700M+ in 2020, with $265M on 3rd-party games
And Epic confirmed it'll keep giving away games in 2021 — Epic Games Store released a bevy of stats to show off …
Context & Ripple Effects
Epic had already positioned the store as a Fortnite-linked PC launcher, reporting 108 million users and $251 million in third-party sales since its 2018 debut. The new figures show that strategy producing a much larger audience and substantially more store spending within the following year.
Keeping free games in place matters because Epic is pairing user acquisition with a growing paid marketplace, rather than treating the store solely as a distribution channel for its own games.
First-order effects
- Players retain access to Epic's free-game program in 2021, giving Epic an ongoing reason to bring users back to the store.
- Third-party publishers gain access to a storefront Epic says generated $265 million in third-party game spending during 2020, alongside a PC user base above 160 million.
Second-order effects
- Epic's giveaways raise the attention threshold for third-party publishers seeking paid sales on the same storefront, an instance of the store's later competition for monthly users against Steam.
- Valve and other PC storefront operators face a more credible challenger for catalog partnerships as Epic combines a large launcher audience with demonstrated third-party purchasing.
Third-order effects
- If Epic can convert free-game recipients into repeat buyers, PC game distribution shifts further toward platforms that use owned game ecosystems and promotional inventory to build marketplace scale.
- The trade-off behind Epic's early third-party sales push becomes more central: free acquisition can expand reach, but store economics depend on sustaining paid demand for outside publishers.
The trend: PC game stores are increasingly using large game ecosystems and promotional giveaways to turn audience scale into third-party marketplace demand.