The Epic Games Store has released its 2023 year in review, which includes stats revealing it gave away more than $2,000 worth of games last year.
A blog post on the Epic Games Store, which looks to rival other PC storefronts such as Steam, revealed it gave away 86 games in total amassing to a recommended retail price of $2,055. More than 580 million games were downloaded through the free giveaway offer.
As for actual player numbers, the Epic Games Store reached 75 million monthly active users in December 2023, which was a 10% increase from the previous year.
This still pales in comparison to Steam, however. The latest data for Valve’s platform saw it hit 132 million monthly active users by the end of 2021, a number that’s likely grown significantly since then considering the platform’s concurrent users jumped from 27.4 million at the same time to 33 million by January 2023.
Player spending was also up for the Epic Games Store in 2023, rising by 16% to $950 million. Its top titles by player spending and engagement were Genshin Impact, Rocket League, Dead Island 2, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Fortnite.
These big numbers still aren’t enough for the storefront to be profitable though, as Epic Games Store boss Steve Allison admitted in November 2023 it was still a loss leader for the company after nearly five years.
Epic Games’ goal is simply to grow the store currently, using ploys like the weekly free giveaways, major exclusive games, and an 88/12 revenue split (compared to Stean’s 70/30) for developers to draw people in.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.