The Epic Games Store saw a fair bit of controversy when it first launched, but thanks to a slew of regular free games and a very impressive bank of exclusives, the EGS is now a pretty great platform for PC gamers. It seems as though EGS could even be poised to overtake Steam when it comes to its player numbers – something which is a considerable achievement.
According to Epic, there’s close to 61 million monthly active gamers using their platform, with an average concurrent peak of 13 millions players. These incredible numbers are presumably due to some of the unbelievable free games Epic has given to all its members. In the last few weeks alone, these have included the likes of mega-hits Grand Theft Auto 5 and Civilization 6. Let’s also not overlook the fact that if you’re playing Fortnite on PC, you have no choice but to play it through the Epic Games Store.
Comparing those numbers to Steam still shows off a dramatic difference. Valve’s veteran gaming platform sees 100 million active gamers a month, which is almost double that of Epic’s. Looking at Steam’s most-recent stats, the platform boasts a player peak of 24.5 million.
However, there’s one important thing to note here: Steam launched in 2003, whereas the EGS launched at the end of 2018. If the numbers keep rising for Epic, we could see the EGS overtake Steam in player number in just a matter of years.
“The results have exceeded our expectations,” said Epic Games Store general manager Steve Allison.
“In 2020, we’ve been growing at a historic rate. Epic Games Store partners have a huge audience of players to sell their games to, and receive 88% of the revenue, instead of only 70% as on other platforms.”
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Featured Image Credit: Epic Game/Valve