We are almost in February and 2021 may already seem far away, but Epic Games has decided to reveal the major figures of theEpic Games Store for the past year via an infographic this week. Although there are “only” 917 games for sale on the store, there have been 194 million PC users in 2021, including up to 13.2 million concurrent : it is half less than the record of Steam, but still impressive. Otherwise, 89 free games that have been collected 765 million times and 4,752,626 creator codes have been used in purchases. And overall, all attendance figures are up from 2020.
L’Epic Games Store now wants to continue its growth with several new features in 2022. The platform should welcome group voice chat to continue chatting without being in the game, hubs community to follow the news of the projects, rankings and polls based on player opinions and optimization of the speed and performance of the launcher. Everything is explained by epic below.
2022 has just kicked off and it’s a chance to look back at what happened on the Epic Games Store in 2021. Just like last year, we’ve looked at all the data and put it together into a retrospective . The growth of the Epic Games Store has continued in 2021 and we can’t wait to reveal what we have in store for you in 2022.
We’re proud to be part of a thriving community of developers, publishers, gamers, and creators who made 2021 another great year for us. There are now over 194 million PC users of the Epic Games Store, an increase of 34 million from 2020. The number of daily active users peaked at 31.1 million and the number of concurrent users peaked at 13.2 million. The peak of monthly active users in December reached 62 million in December, an 11% increase from the previous year’s peak of 56 million.
Gamers bought more games and played longer in 2021. We now have 917 titles for sale on the Epic Games Store, a number that is almost double what we offered to our customers in 2020. Our community has spent nearly US$840 million on the store in 2021, a 20% increase over 2020. Third-party games made up 36% of all sales with over US$300 million spent by players and female players, an increase of 12% compared to 2020.
We continued to give away free games every week. Many developers and publishers participated throughout the year, giving away 89 free games worth $2,120. Over 765 million free games have been grabbed by players, allowing a whole new audience to try out these titles. 76 free games broke their peak concurrent user record on PC, averaging 13 times their all-time high! It is the sign of a remarkable commitment.
The end-of-year holiday sales were bigger than ever. Over 31 million people participated in the event, acquiring over 159 million items during the event, a 14% increase from the 2020 holiday sales.
If you’ve played a game from the Epic Games Store in 2021, you’ve contributed to a community that has spent 6.2 billion hours in-game. We hope you had a great time.
Store features implemented in 2021
The most anticipated feature on the store was the shopping cart, which we launched in December. Players can now add up to 50 items to their cart at any time. We’ve also implemented Epic Achievements and added an Achievement Profile page for players to track their progress. For the moment, 25 titles are compatible.
We have also made the following updates:
- Updated Navigation Redesign to easily navigate the entire Epic Games Store offering and added a new way to quickly launch titles you’ve recently played;
- Improved social panel with improved presence to see what your friends are playing;
- New views to discover the “New releases”, “Best sellers” and “Coming soon” sections as well as categories/genres for products in store;
- Improved wishlist support with email notifications so you never miss the release date of your next favorite game;
- Added Epic Games Wallet for US and Canadian customers, allowing players to deposit money directly into their Epic Games account and make payments easily and quickly;
- Improved product pages that allow browsing to see more information and contained media before adding a game to wishlist or shopping cart;
- New Epic Games Store newsletter (sign up from your profile settings);
- Support for 43 currencies, 13 of which were added in 2021.
Improvements for developers and publishers coming in 2022
Last year, we talked about improving the Epic Games Store’s publishing tools, with the idea of offering comprehensive self-publishing tools to developers and publishers using the platform. In August, we took a giant step towards this goal by launching our editor tools in a successful closed beta.
As part of the closed alpha and beta programs, we welcomed hundreds of new titles to launch on the Epic Games Store using our soon-to-be-released self-publishing tools, making the launch process efficient and smooth for our partners. Epic Games Store partners can expect a full launch of our self-publishing tools in 2022. We will continue Epic Games Store players will enjoy a wider selection of games as we Let’s continue to expand the catalog of games available in the store so that players on the Epic Games Store can enjoy more games to choose from.
Among the key updates this year, special mention to improvements to the Developer Portal and cross-platform play on PC thanks to Epic Online Services. Cross-platform PC play will allow you to launch a multiplayer PC game with incredible ease across multiple PC stores, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Windows Store, GOG and many more!
What are we preparing for Epic Game Store players in 2022?
First of all, we are delighted to confirm that the weekly free games program will continue in 2022.
Epic Achievements represented the first step in fleshing out player profiles on the store. With Profiles, players will enjoy a centralized location where they can see all of their achievements, track their playtime across all titles in their library, and more.
We have taken player feedback into account regarding the library and download management and will be actively looking into these aspects over the coming year. This includes the ability to prioritize certain games and queue others for download, more options for filtering and organizing your library, allowing you to see a wider selection of your games in the library view, as well as the ability to view your library outside of the launcher.
And much more :
- Continued rollout of social features, including voice on the platform through game-enabled groups;
- Community Features, including leaderboards and polls based on player feedback Community Features, including user-driven leaderboards and polls;
- Game Hubs to follow game updates and publisher news about the games you own or follow;
- Gradual arrival of the Epic wallet in other countries around the world;
- Continuous improvements to launcher speed and performance.
You can follow all of our progress and upcoming features by bookmarking the Epic Games Store roadmap.
Games Coming to the Epic Games Store in 2022Great games are coming to the Epic Games Store in 2022. New franchises and highly anticipated sequels may soon join your wishlist. Here are some titles you can play this year.
- Forspoken
- Dying Light 2 Stay Human
- STALKER 2
- Sifu
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
- Rumbleverse
- Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
- Saints Row
- Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
Thank you to those who have purchased or downloaded a game from us since the launch of the Epic Games Store. We are moving forward with your continued support and look forward to bringing you an array of exciting experiences and games created by many development and publishing partners in 2022.
Other than that, Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is available on PS5 for €46.99 on Amazon.co.uk.