Another huge year is in the books for Epic Games and the Epic Games Store, according to its year-in-review post released today.
The platform that houses the overwhelmingly popular Fortnite in addition to a massive collection of other titles saw the total number of Epic Games Store users on PC reach over 194 million by the end of 2021, an increase of 34 million from the end of 2020. Those users spent 6.2 billion hours in-game during 2021, most notably in games like Fortnite, Rocket League, Genshin Impact, GTA V, and others.
That massive collection of titles also drastically increased during 2021, with twice as many games for sale (917 in total) compared to last year’s number. Those games resulted in $840 million being spent on the Store in 2021, up 20 percent from the year prior, with $300 million coming from just third-party game sales alone.
But players didn’t have to spend to get their hands on new games on the Epic Games Store. The platform gave away 89 games this year, with 765 million games getting claimed by players. Of those 89 games, 76 broke peak concurrent user records. Epic looks to continue giving away free games weekly in 2022. Players can also acquire free games via Twitch if they are Prime users. Right now, Total War: Warhammer and World War Z: Aftermath are available.
Outside of games on their own, Epic continued to expand in 2021. It received $1 billion in funding to support its “long-term vision for the metaverse” and is also planning a Fortnite film after hiring multiple former Lucasfilm employees. Epic also acquired numerous other companies in 2021, including Mediatonic (creators of Fall Guys) and Harmonix (creators of Guitar Hero and Rock Band). The release of the widely anticipated Unreal Engine 5 is scheduled for 2022.
In addition, Epic announced a Lunar New Year Sale starting today, featuring deals on a handful of popular titles like Red Dead Redemption 2, Far Cry 6, and Cyberpunk 2077.
