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…
