Epic’s free game program is vital to rivaling Steam

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The Epic Games Store’s free game program, which sees at least one game offered for free each week, has been one of the highlights of the launcher since its 2018 debut. Hundreds of titles have been given away since then, including all-timers like Control, Grand Theft Auto 5, and Death Stranding. With hundreds of games given away since launch, though, Epic has altered the way it approaches the program.

Speaking to Polygon in a video call, Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Steve Allison laid out how his team chooses which games to feature. “For a while now it’s been more about games we think are really fucking cool, pardon my French. [Games] that maybe more players should play or a developer’s work that they could discover.”

While that includes a menu of select AAA games, the program has also included indie darlings, under-the-radar releases, and titles you may have missed. With the curated approach taken at the Epic Games Store, that leaves some work to be done. Games can be submitted for potential inclusion in the program or Epic’s revenue share program, though Allison noted that Epic has a team out there hunting for the next great video game.

“We’re sending people out to every [gaming] show possible, the smallest ones,” he said. “Now we really want to… just talk to more people [and] see more games.” And it’s not stopping there, as Allison later added, “We really want to get to the small developers who may not even have shipped the game before and may not be on the regular circuit of shows.”

That is a lot of work to give away games for free, but speaks to Epic’s goal of onboarding new users. Among PC storefronts, Epic Game Store remains firmly in second place behind Steam, while also sharing quite a few customers. Per Allison, 60% of Epic’s customers are shared with Steam. That led to more than 317 million total PC users (up from 295 million in 2024) on Steam, though Allison’s goal is a bit bigger.

“We expect to grow our share of the market on PCs above 20-25%,” the executive noted, though a timetable wasn’t given. The most recent information we could find on Epic’s PC market share comes from a 2022 social media post from CEO Tim Sweeney. In it, he notes a roughly 15% PC market share (by revenue), compared to the 85% Steam enjoyed.

“[Users] convert at about 16% over a reasonable period of time,” Allison said. And while it wasn’t specified what a reasonable period of time meant specifically, the executive added, “The minute you grab a free game, you may not be spending the next day or two on the game, but now you’re in our ecosystem. Maybe you’ll grab more eventually.”

From Allison’s perspective, “16% is pretty good, but we’d like to see conversion in like 25%,” noting that some of the free game program titles convert users as highly as 30%, depending on the title and when it’s released. He added, “It will happen as a result of doing the things our players are telling us to.”

In taking those steps to bring more people to the platform, the benefits ripple outwards further than you might expect. Allison pointed out that 77% of the games released via the free game program reach record-level concurrent users while being featured — including across other platforms like Steam. “We do measure the Steam lifts, and on average, we see a 40% lift on whatever the Steam CCU baseline was before the offer.”

Image: Epic Games

So not only are a developer’s titles getting more playtime across multiple platforms, but there are also financial incentives. Documents tied to the Epic v. Apple lawsuit revealed in 2021 that the company does pay developers a fee to feature their titles in the free game program. However, there’s also a potential financial windfall if a game offers paid DLC or other transactions. In those cases, the devs would be entitled to the first $1 million their title makes annually, before Epic Games Store’s 88%/12% revenue share kicks in.

That said, third-party spending on the store is relatively a small piece of the pie, compared to the overall amount Epic makes on the storefront. While spending by PC users has greatly increased on the Epic Games Store since 2022, when Sweeney noted a 15% market share (from $820 million then to $1.16 billion in 2025), spending on third-party titles hasn’t seen such a dramatic shift. In fact, 2025 is the first year the number has risen since 2022. While 2025 saw a 57% increase over the year prior, bringing in $400 million, it’s only about a 12% increase over the $355 million made in 2022.

It will be interesting to see how the new revenue share announced last year impacts these numbers in 2026. Whatever the case, the free game program has been a rousing success for Epic, in terms of onboarding new users. And it’s just one part of a large year for the EPic Games Store, which will see an overhaul coming soon, and a massive increase in Fortnite cosmetics as pre-order bonuses.​