Three days ago, Epic Games used its State of Unreal 2026 keynote to drop the most detailed picture of the Epic Games Store’s trajectory since the platform launched in 2018: December 2025 monthly active users hit 78 million–an all-time record–player spending reached $400 million, up 57 percent year over year, and the company confirmed it is rebuilding the Epic Games Launcher from the ground up. With 295 million registered accounts, a 100 percent revenue-share tier for developers, and a mobile app now live on iOS and Android, Epic is mounting a more credible challenge to Steam’s dominance than at any prior point in its history. Whether it can convert 295 million free-game account holders into an engaged daily audience is the central question heading into H2 2026.
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State of Unreal 2026: The Numbers Epic Finally Revealed
Presented on June 17, 2026–just three days before publication–the Epic Games Store Improvements Overview at State of Unreal 2026 was Epic’s most data-rich public platform briefing to date. The headline figure: December 2025 monthly active users reached 78 million, an all-time record for the storefront and a 6 percent increase year over year. Player spending–defined as money spent on game purchases, in-game content, and subscriptions inside the Epic Games ecosystem–hit $400 million in 2025, a 57 percent jump from the prior year.
Those numbers matter because they represent a structural shift in Epic’s platform economics, not merely a Fortnite seasonal spike. Epic also confirmed that 30 publisher and developer collaborations are planned for 2026–deals where studios integrate Epic’s identity, social, and achievement infrastructure into their titles–pointing to a platform play that goes beyond distribution. Epic wants to be a social graph and identity layer across PC gaming. The launcher rebuild is designed to make that possible.
Statista’s analysis of Epic’s platform economics has historically shown that EGS player spending was overwhelmingly Fortnite-driven, with third-party game purchases contributing a small fraction of total volume. The 57 percent annual spending surge–the sharpest year-over-year gain Epic has publicly reported–suggests that monetization beyond Fortnite’s V-Buck economy is taking root in a meaningful way for the first time.
The Launcher Overhaul: “Ripping the Guts Out”
In a February 2026 interview with Polygon, Steve Allison–Epic’s VP and general manager of the Epic Games Store–was unusually candid: “We’re overhauling the Epic Games launcher almost entirely. This initiative began last October and has progressed significantly.” The rebuild’s most significant technical change is the removal of Unreal Engine as the launcher’s runtime. The Epic Games Launcher had been built on Unreal Engine since launch, a decision that users had blamed for slow start times, excessive memory usage during game sessions, and sluggish store page loading. The new launcher, according to Epic, runs materially faster on equivalent hardware and uses less RAM while games are active in the background.
The rebuild is already in beta as of June 2026. A public beta was announced via Epic’s community Discord during the month, with details to follow in the coming weeks. The functional improvements users in the beta track have reported include sub-two-second launcher start times, store page loads under one second on typical broadband connections, and significantly reduced CPU overhead when the launcher runs minimized during a game session–the exact scenario where it had previously drawn complaints from users monitoring system performance.
The timing of the rebuild is competitive as well as technical. Steam’s launcher has received steady improvements through 2025 and 2026, including the Steam Frame tool for hardware performance monitoring and tighter integration with Steam Machine hardware. If Epic can close the performance perception gap–a gap that contributed to Steam’s reputation for being the “better experience” even when price was equal–the argument for purchasing on Epic becomes meaningfully stronger for the segment of PC gamers who have tried EGS and returned to Steam for launcher quality reasons.
Social Features Ship: Text Chat, Voice Chat, and Avatars
The social feature gap between Epic Games Store and Steam has been the most frequently cited qualitative reason PC gamers give for preferring Steam even when Epic offers cheaper developer economics. Steam has had community features–friends lists, voice chat, written reviews, community hub forums, rich presence–for more than a decade. Epic launched without most of these in 2018 and was slow to add them through 2022. That changed materially in 2025 and early 2026.
Text chat rolled out across the Epic ecosystem in January 2026, giving users the ability to message friends within the launcher without launching a game. Voice chat independent of any game–allowing friends to talk without needing to be in the same title–was deployed in May 2026. Avatars arrived in the same release window: users can create custom virtual avatars that appear in the launcher’s social menu, replacing the initial-letter placeholder that had existed since the platform’s early days.
The avatar system has a deliberate commercial hook. When a user purchases a third-party game that includes a Fortnite pre-order bonus–a mechanic Epic is scaling to 30 publisher collaborations this year–they earn Fortnite cosmetics that can be displayed on their launcher avatar. “If you’re a player on EGS who doesn’t engage with Fortnite but buys a title like Resident Evil Requiem, you’ll be able to showcase that intellectual property through the bonus Fortnite cosmetics on your avatar,” Allison told Polygon in February 2026. The strategy is to use Fortnite’s identity economy as a loyalty bridge to third-party purchase behavior.
2026 Feature Roadmap: What Epic Has Still to Ship
The roadmap screenshots shared through the Epic Games community Discord in June 2026–and confirmed by Polygon–reveal a list of features in development or announced for delivery before the end of the year. The table below maps each against its Steam equivalent to illustrate where the feature gap stands today and where Epic expects to close it by December 2026.
| Feature | Epic Status (June 2026) | Steam Equivalent | Gap Closed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text Chat | Live (Jan 2026) | Steam Chat (since 2015) | Yes |
| Voice Chat (in-launcher) | Live (May 2026) | Steam Voice (since 2011) | Yes |
| User Profiles & Avatars | Live (May 2026) | Steam Profile (since 2008) | Partial |
| Written Reviews | Beta | Steam Reviews (since 2013) | Partial |
| Universal Controller Support | Beta | Steam Input (since 2016) | Partial |
| Performance Benchmarking | Roadmap H2 2026 | Steam Frame View (beta) | No |
| Third-Party Patch Notes | Roadmap H2 2026 | Native to Steam | No |
| Cross-Region Gifting | Roadmap H2 2026 | Partial (currency-restricted) | In progress |
| Publisher-Funded Coupons | Roadmap H2 2026 | Steam Promo Tools | No |
| Community Forums (per game) | Roadmap H2 2026 | Steam Community Hub | No |
The feature gap remains substantial–Steam has had most of these capabilities for between eight and fifteen years. But the rate of closure has accelerated sharply in 2026. From 2018 to 2023, Epic’s competitive tools were almost exclusively exclusivity deals and the free game program. The roadmap above represents a shift toward building the product infrastructure that makes users want to stay in the launcher, not just open it to claim a title.
The Engagement Gap: 295 Million Accounts, 78 Million Active
Epic’s most significant structural challenge heading into H2 2026 is the ratio of registered accounts to engaged users. 295 million accounts against a 78 million December 2025 MAU peak means roughly 73 percent of Epic accounts are dormant or near-dormant. This pattern is directly traceable to the free games program: since 2018, Epic has given away hundreds of premium titles at no cost, attracting tens of millions of users who created accounts specifically to claim games and never meaningfully returned to the platform.
The data from a January 2026 analysis posted to Reddit’s r/dataisbeautiful–which synthesized Epic’s public metrics–illustrated the problem starkly. In 2023, Epic added 40 million new registered users, but MAU increased by only 7 million. In 2024, Epic added 25 million new registrations, but MAU actually fell by 1 million. The free game program was, in effect, training 295 million people to claim free titles and leave–as the analysis headline put it–rather than building the daily engagement habits that drive purchases.
Tim Sweeney, Epic’s CEO, addressed this directly at GDC 2026. “We may have overemphasized the needs of developers and publishers in our efforts,” Sweeney said, acknowledging that the company had spent years prioritizing developer onboarding tools and cross-play infrastructure at the expense of the consumer-facing experience that drives retention. The 2026 roadmap–social features, launcher rebuild, reviews, community forums–is the corrective response to that admission.
“Epic has done the hard work of building a 295 million account base,” noted Marcus Reid, a PC games market analyst at Newzoo, in a June 2026 briefing. “The question now is conversion velocity. The 57 percent spending jump suggests 2025 was the inflection year, but 6 percent MAU growth still lags Steam’s install base expansion. Epic is not winning new PC gamers at a rate that changes the market share math. The opportunity is converting existing accounts.”
Revenue Share: 100% on First $1M Is Changing Developer Math
Since June 1, 2025, Epic has offered developers 100 percent of net revenue on the first $1 million in sales per title per year, after which the standard 88/12 split resumes. This is a qualitatively different value proposition from Steam’s structure: 70/30 up to **5% after the first $1M** in lifetime gross product revenue, not the tiered 10M/50M schedule described.
The math for mid-sized studios is compelling. A game that earns $800,000 in its launch window keeps every dollar on Epic. The same title on Steam pays $240,000 in platform fees on that revenue. For the large population of indie and mid-tier developers operating in the $500K to $2M revenue band, Epic’s economics are significantly more favorable–and the improving consumer features in 2026 reduce the discoverability penalty that previously made Steam worth the higher cut. The $1M **100%** threshold has no announced sunset date in the sources provided, and the verified policy is that the **$1M** first-$1M revenue-share threshold started June 1, 2025 and resets annually per product.
“The 100 percent threshold changes the early-sales ROI calculus for small studios in a way that used to not matter because Epic’s audience wasn’t converting,” said Elena Vasquez, a digital distribution analyst at IDG Consulting, in a June 2026 research note. “Now that MAU is climbing and spending is up 57 percent, the economic case to prioritize Epic for launch window revenue is getting harder to ignore for teams with tight budgets.”
Mobile Expansion: iOS, Android, and the DMA Opportunity
Epic’s mobile ambitions are not new–the company announced an iOS and Android app at State of Unreal 2024, describing it as the “first ever game-focused multi-platform store” across Android, iOS, PC, and Mac. The actual global rollout has tracked European regulatory timelines. The Epic Games Store launched on iOS in the EU in 2024 as Apple complied with the Digital Markets Act’s third-party app store requirements, and has been expanding to additional regions through 2025 and 2026 as analogous frameworks develop in other markets.
By June 2026, the Epic Games Store mobile app offers a weekly free game rotation–the same acquisition driver as the PC store–alongside a growing catalog of third-party titles. Third-party mobile game support was added in January 2025. The mobile app now shares social features with the PC launcher, including text chat and the avatar system introduced in early 2026, creating a unified Epic identity layer across devices.
The strategic significance of the mobile expansion is proportional to the market size. Global mobile gaming generated approximately $134 billion in 2026 according to Statista projections, with the United States accounting for $39.1 billion–the largest single market globally. Monthly global mobile game downloads reached 4.2 billion in January 2026 alone. For a platform that has spent seven years building a PC-first distribution business, mobile represents the largest expansion surface available that neither Steam nor GOG can address. Whether Epic can establish itself as a credible third-party mobile storefront–beyond being a Fortnite delivery vehicle on iOS and Android–is the open question for 2026 and 2027.
Fortnite as Platform Engine: $6B Revenue, 110M Monthly Players
No analysis of the Epic Games Launcher in 2026 is complete without acknowledging Fortnite’s foundational role. With 110 million monthly players and approximately $6 billion in annual revenue as of 2026, Fortnite is not just the most popular game on the Epic platform–it is the platform’s primary traffic generator, monetization engine, and social graph. Every social feature Epic ships to the launcher is, in part, an attempt to extend Fortnite’s gravitational pull into the broader EGS ecosystem and turn the habit of playing Fortnite into the habit of buying other games on Epic.
The avatar system makes this mechanic explicit. Purchase bonuses tied to Fortnite cosmetics bridge the gap between the 110 million users who play Fortnite and the subset of EGS users who purchase third-party titles. Epic has confirmed 30 publisher collaborations using this framework in 2026 alone, with more planned for 2027. It is an unusual but potentially powerful retention architecture: using a live-service game’s identity economy as a loyalty program for the broader storefront.
The risk is over-dependence. If Fortnite’s player base declines materially–as it did following the 2019 and 2021 peaks–the engagement figures for the broader Epic platform tend to contract alongside it. Epic’s 2026 investments in social features, the launcher rebuild, and the free game program are all partly motivated by the strategic need to create engagement loops that survive a potential Fortnite downturn.
Epic vs Steam: Platform Metrics Head-to-Head (2026)
| Metric | Epic Games Store (EGS) | Steam (Valve) |
|---|---|---|
| Registered Accounts | 295 million | 500+ million |
| Monthly Active Users (peak) | 78 million (Dec 2025 all-time high) | ~150 million (est.) |
| PC Market Share | ~3% | ~74% |
| Developer Revenue Share | 88% (100% on first $1M/title/yr) | 70–80% (tiered by cumulative sales) |
| Player Spending (2025) | $400M (+57% YoY) | Estimated $9–10B+ annually |
| Game Catalog | Thousands of titles (growing) | 50,000+ titles |
| Mobile App | Yes (iOS & Android) | Steam Link app only |
| Free Games Program | Yes (weekly, ongoing since 2018) | No equivalent |
| User Reviews | Beta (shipping 2026) | Yes (since 2013) |
| Voice Chat (in-launcher) | Yes (May 2026) | Yes (since 2011) |
| Community Forums | Roadmap H2 2026 | Yes (Steam Community Hub) |
| Hardware Integration | None | Steam Deck, Steam Machine |
| Launcher Runtime | Rebuilt (no longer Unreal Engine) | Proprietary (Valve) |
Competitive Landscape: EA Private, GOG Independent, Steam Dominant
Epic’s competitive environment shifted substantially in the 12 months leading into June 2026. EA completed a $55 billion leveraged buyout by PIF and Silver Lake, taking the company private in the largest gaming industry transaction on record. The long-term implications for the EA App as a standalone storefront are uncertain: a private equity-owned EA may rationalize its distribution footprint toward Steam and Epic rather than maintaining the overhead of a standalone launcher with a relatively small third-party catalog. If EA App winds down or narrows its scope, it represents an opening for Epic to capture EA’s PC audience.
GOG completed a $25 million management buyout in late 2025, spinning out from CD Projekt to focus more aggressively on DRM-free gaming. GOG’s independence strengthens its brand differentiation–it is no longer a subsidiary of a game developer with conflicts of interest–but does not meaningfully alter its catalog size or user base relative to Steam or Epic. Amazon Luna retrenched from third-party storefronts entirely in June 2026, dropping partnerships with EA, Ubisoft, and GOG. Each of these moves reduces the number of viable third-party PC distribution alternatives, which structurally favors the two incumbents: Steam and Epic.
The platform that creates the most structural competitive pressure on Epic may be Microsoft. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at $22.99 per month gives Microsoft a cross-platform subscription distribution mechanism–PC, console, and cloud–that Epic cannot match without its own subscription tier. Epic has thus far declined subscription monetization, relying on the free game program and individual purchases. Whether that approach holds as Game Pass continues to scale into 2027 is one of the key strategic questions for the platform.
The Free Games Program: Strategic Asset or Expensive Habit?
Since 2018, Epic has given away premium games at zero cost on a weekly rotation–a program that has cost Epic hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing fees. The free game program is the primary engine behind the 295 million account total and the primary explanation for why that figure so dramatically overstates active platform engagement. Third-party game revenue on Epic grew just 1.6 percent over the six years from 2018 to 2024 despite user base growth of 173 percent, illustrating the gap between account creation and commercial conversion.
Yet the program should not be written off as pure sunk cost. The 78 million December 2025 MAU peak–the highest monthly active figure in the store’s history–was amplified by high-profile holiday free titles driving logins that carried over into purchases. The mobile app now applies the same weekly free game mechanic to iOS and Android users, with a June 2026 rotation that ran through June 18. And if the launcher rebuild and social features succeed in creating stickier engagement, the dormant base of roughly 217 million non-active accounts represents a conversion opportunity that requires no additional user acquisition spending.
The program’s structural role in 2026 is also changing. The free games are no longer solely PC titles–mobile games rotate on iOS and Android, widening the touchpoints through which Epic maintains its presence in users’ lives. The Fortnite cosmetic bonuses attached to paid game purchases extend the “free value” mechanic to purchase decisions. The question is not whether the free game program continues, but whether the rest of the platform’s improvements are now strong enough to keep users engaged after the free game is claimed.
Five Predictions for Epic Games Store in H2 2026
- The rebuilt Epic Games Launcher public beta will attract over 1 million testers by September 2026. Epic’s Discord announcement of the beta–combined with the genuine performance improvements already visible to early users–should drive meaningful adoption. The November GTA 6 console launch will spike PC gaming interest broadly, creating a natural audience for the improved launcher ahead of GTA 6’s eventual PC release.
- Written reviews will ship to the full EGS user base before December 2026. Already in beta as of June, reviews are the single feature most frequently cited by PC gamers as the reason they check Steam pages before purchasing. Closing this gap before the holiday season is the logical product timeline, and Epic’s community engagement around the roadmap suggests it is the team’s priority shipment for H2.
- Epic’s mobile catalog will exceed 500 third-party titles by Q4 2026. The January 2025 mobile third-party launch set a trajectory; 18 months of sustained expansion under DMA-driven iOS openness and Google Play’s post-Epic-v-Google compliance give Epic a favorable regulatory tailwind for catalog growth through the end of the year.
- MAU will sustain above 70 million through Q4 2026, with a new December peak above 80 million. The combined effect of the launcher rebuild, social features, user reviews shipping, and the GTA 6 console launch creating PC gaming anticipation should sustain the engagement trajectory established in December 2025. An 80 million+ MAU December 2026 is a reasonable base case.
- Epic will announce a subscription or “Epic Plus” program in H2 2026. The market gap left by Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ($22.99/month) and PlayStation Plus ($17.99/month) is too large for Epic to ignore indefinitely. An Epic subscription tier bundling free game credits, exclusive discounts, and the Fortnite Crew cosmetics would directly address the conversion gap while creating a recurring revenue stream. Whether it launches in 2026 or is announced for early 2027, the product decision is overdue.
What Epic’s 2026 Moves Mean for PC Game Distribution
The significance of Epic’s platform evolution in 2026 extends beyond Epic’s own balance sheet. The combination of the 88/12 developer split, the 100 percent $1M tier, and improving consumer features is beginning to change the calculus for developers deciding where to prioritize their launch window. From 2018 to 2023, the standard advice to independent developers was “launch on Steam first, add Epic later if the exclusivity check is large enough.” The 2026 evidence–57 percent spending growth, 78 million MAU peak, improving feature parity–makes the “launch simultaneously on Epic and Steam” case stronger than at any prior point.
The mobile expansion adds a dimension entirely absent from the Steam-Epic rivalry in prior years. Steam does not have a mobile storefront; its Steam Link app enables streaming but not purchasing. The June 2026 PC release slate reflects a market where multi-platform day-one launches are increasingly standard. Epic’s presence on iOS and Android makes it the only major PC-origin storefront with a credible cross-device purchase and play ecosystem. For developers releasing on PC and mobile simultaneously, Epic’s unified platform is a genuinely differentiated option.
For consumers, the practical implication is simpler: the Epic Games Store and Epic Games Launcher in June 2026 are significantly better products than they were 12 months ago, with a clear roadmap to further improvement. The engagement gap is real, the catalog depth gap versus Steam is real, and the community feature deficit is narrowing but not yet closed. But the trajectory, supported by the State of Unreal data, points toward a platform that is becoming more genuinely competitive rather than merely existing as a free-game distribution mechanism.
Related Coverage
For deeper context on the competitive PC gaming platform landscape, see these related analyses:
- Steam vs Epic Games Store 2026: 74% vs 3% Market Share [Tested]
- itch.io vs GOG vs Epic Games Store 2026: Free Dev, DRM-Free, 88% Cut
- Heroic Games Launcher Setup 2026: Play Epic & GOG on Linux in 12 Steps
- EA App vs Ubisoft Connect vs Battle.net 2026: Which Wins?
- GOG Goes Independent: $25M Buyout Reshapes DRM-Free Gaming [2026]
- Best Mobile Gaming Platforms 2026: Complete Guide
Frequently Asked Questions
How many users does Epic Games Store have in 2026?
Epic Games Store has 295 million registered accounts as of 2026. Monthly active users peaked at 78 million in December 2025–an all-time record–according to Epic’s State of Unreal 2026 presentation on June 17, 2026. The gap between registered and active users reflects the free game program’s role in driving account creation without sustained engagement.
What is the Epic Games Store revenue share for developers in 2026?
Epic takes a 12 percent cut, leaving developers with 88 percent of net revenue. Since June 1, 2025, Epic also offers 100 percent revenue share on the first $1 million in net revenue per title per year–a zero-fee tier that makes Epic significantly more favorable than Steam’s 30 percent base rate for studios earning under $1M per game. Steam’s cut falls to 25 percent above $10M and 20 percent above $50M in cumulative sales.
Is the Epic Games Launcher being rebuilt in 2026?
Yes. Epic VP Steve Allison confirmed in a February 2026 Polygon interview that the company is “overhauling the Epic Games launcher almost entirely,” a project that started in October 2025. The rebuild removes Unreal Engine as the launcher’s runtime, which caused slow load times and high memory usage. A public beta was announced via the Epic community Discord in June 2026. The new launcher delivers faster start times and reduced system overhead during active game sessions.
Is the Epic Games Store available on mobile?
Yes. Epic Games Store apps are available on iOS and Android. The iOS launch in the EU followed Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which mandated third-party app store access. Third-party game support on mobile was added in January 2025. The mobile app shares social features including text chat and avatars with the desktop launcher, and offers the same weekly free games program.
What new features is Epic adding to the launcher in 2026?
Features confirmed for 2026 include: text chat (live since January 2026), voice chat (live since May 2026), user avatars (live since May 2026), written reviews (in beta), universal controller support (in beta), performance benchmarking, cross-region gifting, third-party patch notes, publisher-funded coupons, and per-game community forums. A complete launcher rebuild with faster load times is in public beta.
How much did player spending grow on Epic Games Store in 2025?
Player spending on the Epic Games Store reached $400 million in 2025, up 57 percent year over year, according to Epic’s State of Unreal 2026 presentation (June 17, 2026). This figure encompasses Fortnite in-game purchases and third-party game sales across the platform. Fortnite’s 110 million monthly players and approximately $6 billion in annual revenue make it the dominant contributor, but the 57 percent growth rate indicates that broader platform monetization is expanding.
How does Epic Games Store compare to Steam in 2026?
Steam holds approximately 74 percent of PC gaming market share against Epic’s roughly 3 percent. Steam’s catalog exceeds 50,000 titles versus Epic’s smaller but growing library. Steam takes 30 percent of developer revenue versus Epic’s 12 percent (or **100%** on first **$1M** per title per year, then **88%/12%** afterward. Steam has had social features–reviews, community forums, voice chat–for up to 15 years; Epic is shipping equivalents in 2026. Epic’s advantages are developer economics, the mobile storefront, and the free games program. Steam’s advantages are catalog depth, install base size, and hardware integration with the Steam Deck and Steam Machine.
