The Epic Games Store is growing in 2026, with player spending and developer activity both experiencing a significant uptick on the platform, according to new numbers shared by Epic Games during the State of Unreal keynote talk at Unreal Fest in Chicago today, June 17.
The Epic Games Store now boasts over 6,000 games created by over 3,000 developers, with Epic senior vice president for the Unreal ecosystem Bill Clifford giving credit for this growth to initiatives like Epic First Run, which allows developers to retain all of their net revenue for their first six months before launching on other stores, and Launch Everywhere with Epic, which offers Unreal Engine developers a reduced engine royalty rate of 3.5 percent when they publish their title on the Epic Games Store.
In the first four months of 2026, spending on third-party games in the Epic Games Store is up 40 percent year-over-year, according to Clifford during the State of Unreal presentation.
“Last year, we had a 20-percent rewards boost through the back end of the year, and we’re seeing players continue to spend at heightened levels using the rewards that they accumulated and earned during the promotional period,” Clifford said during the talk.
Clifford said that Epic is working on more ways to connect the Epic Games Store directly with the Fortnite ecosystem, widening the player base accessible to developers on the platform, flagging initiatives like Epic’s collaboration with HoYoverse as an example of this type of initiative.
“We’ve done over 30 similar collabs for 2026, with more coming in 2027,” Clifford said.
The Epic Games Store has experienced notable growth since last year’s resolution of Epic Games’ legal challenges against Google and Apple, which had the effect of creating more opportunities for game makers to sell their games inside marketplaces like the Epic Games Store without having to share a cut of the proceeds with the big tech platforms. The ongoing growth of the Epic Games Store in 2026, particularly in the third-party arena, shows the downstream impact of these decisions.
Epic’s State of Unreal presentation is currently ongoing, featuring additional announcements including the release of Unreal Engine 5.8. Stay tuned for more coverage from the ground — or head to YouTube to catch the rest of the presentation on the official livestream.
“2025 was a year of growth for the Epic Games Store, and we’re off to a great start in 2026,” Clifford said during the onstage presentation.