Epic freebies spike but don't stick
Former employees and Epic’s communications director say the Epic Games Store still creates concurrent‑user spikes with free games, but many players claim freebies and then return to Steam instead of becoming long‑term customers (kotaku.com).
Epic Games’ free-game giveaways still drive traffic spikes, but former employees told Kotaku many players claim the freebies and then go back to Steam for everything else. (kotaku.com) That account matches Epic’s own public numbers: the company said on February 14, 2025 that Epic Games Store reached 295 million PC users in 2024, while peak monthly active users slipped to 74 million from 75 million a year earlier. (store.epicgames.com) Epic also said third-party spending through Epic Payments fell 18% year over year to $255 million in 2024, even as total spending across the store, including Epic’s own games, rose to $1.09 billion. (store.epicgames.com) The store was built to challenge Valve’s Steam when Epic launched it in December 2018 with a lower revenue cut for developers and a promise of a fairer marketplace. (unrealengine.com) Free games became the centerpiece of that push. Tim Sweeney said in August 2024 that the giveaways were “very economical” and “by far the most cost-effective aspect” of the Epic Games Store, even as he said many exclusivity deals were “not good investments.” (gamesindustry.biz) Epic has not backed away from the tactic. Its 2024 year-in-review said the company gave away more than $2,000 worth of PC titles in 2024 and planned to keep the program running on PC and mobile in 2025. (gamespot.com) At the same time, Epic has been trying to make the store stickier with basic shopping features Steam users expect, including a new download manager, gifting, search improvements, pre-loading on PC and Mac, and new social tools. (gamespot.com) The pressure on those efforts has been visible inside the company. Epic said on September 28, 2023 that it was laying off about 16% of its workforce, around 830 employees, after spending “way more money” than it earned. (epicgames.com) So the free games are still doing one job Epic wants: bringing people through the door. The harder job, former employees told Kotaku, is getting those players to stay after the weekly claim button disappears. (kotaku.com)
