The Epic Games Store has posted its annual report on the stats of the PC digital game store for the past year. However, the biggest news in the report is something that will happen later this year.
In its 2023 year in review post, Epic Games confirmed once again its earlier news that will launch a mobile version of the store for iOS devices sometime in 2024. This is due to Apple's changing of its mobile game store policies to comply with the European Union's Digital Market Act.
Epic stated today in their 2023 recap that they have received their Apple Developer Account to launch the store. It added that its development studio in Sweden will operate both the mobile store in Europe along with Epic's hit game Fortnite.
Epic apparently feels it can make money with such an iOS store, which is something Microsoft claims it won't be able to do if it wanted to launch an Xbox mobile games storefront. You do have to wonder if Microsoft will now take a chance on such a venture if Epic Games says it will do so.
As far as the past year of 2023, the recap says the Epic Games Store now has over 270 million PC users, up from 230 million users in 2022. In December 2023, the store had 75 million active monthly users, up from 68 million users in 2022.
$950 million was spent by PC players in the Epic Games Store in 2023, up from $820 million in 2022. However, the amount spent on third-party PC games in the store in 2023 was $310 million, down from $355 million from a year ago. Also, 86 free games were released by the story in 2023, down from 99 in 2022.
The top 5 games in the Epic Games Store in 2023, in terms of money spent and in player engagement were:
- Fortnite
- Genshin Impact
- Rocket League
- Dead Island 2
- Grand Theft Auto V
For the year 2024, Epic has major plans for new store improvements. The big one is a new Download Manager which should be out in the very near future. It will offer gamers a way to " control timing with updates, schedule downloads, reorder your queue, and more."
Other features that will be added in 2024 will include pre-loading games for pre-purchases, games that offer subscription services, and improvements for its Offline Mode.
Finally, Epic claims a number of highly anticipated PC games will be coming to the store in 2024, including Judas, Killing Floor 3, John Carpenter's Toxic Commando, and the early access version of Path of Exile 2.
2 Comments - Add comment