Epic Games Store has been giving away free games every week since it launched in 2018. The idea was simple: bring players to the store, let them grab a free title, and hope they browse and buy something while they are there. It did not work out that way.
Two former Epic employees with knowledge of store operations told Bloomberg that users would frequently log onto the store for free game promotions before bouncing back to Steam. The free games brought traffic. They just did not bring paying customers.
What Former Employees Said
Epic Games Store vice president and general manager Steve Allison said the storefront is only “marginally profitable.” The former employees told Bloomberg the free games program was being taken advantage of and hurting the company’s bottom line.
PC players spent $1.16 billion on the store in 2025, but $400 million of that came from third-party games. The profit margins on those sales are thin. Epic takes only 12% from third-party game sales, compared to Steam’s 30%. That was supposed to attract developers. Instead, Allison told Polygon the low profit margin on third-party games, combined with fees paid to developers for the weekly free game program, left the store only marginally profitable.
Why the Store Struggled to Compete
The Epic Games Store launched in 2018 as a rival to Steam. Tim Sweeney openly criticized Steam’s 30% commission, positioning Epic as a better option for developers and publishers. According to reports, that strategy did not work as expected.
The store also launched without the features users expected. A shopping cart and user reviews were unavailable when the store launched, drawing criticism from gamers.
One of Epic’s biggest miscalculations may have been assuming Steam leads the PC gaming market only because of its large number of developers, discounts, or offers. For many users, Steam is also a community platform, which is one of the main reasons it holds such a strong position in the market.
Other initiatives, including Epic’s mobile store and tools for users to create their own games, also fell short of internal expectations, according to eight current and former employees who spoke with Bloomberg. Epic regularly released products before employees felt they would resonate with consumers.
