Epic Games (epicgames.com) is the ultimate disruptor of the modern gaming industry. Armed with an influx of unprecedented cash from the viral phenomenon Fortnite, Epic Games aggressively challenged the entrenched monopolies of both Apple and Steam. Firmly positioned among the top websites in the world, the Epic Games digital portal serves as the command center for its massively popular storefront, its industry-standard game development engine, and its sprawling digital ecosystems.
Epic Games was founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney in his parents' basement under the original name 'Potomac Computer Systems.' Over the decades, the company created legendary franchises like Gears of War and built the Unreal Engine. In 2017, they launched a free-to-play battle royale mode for Fortnite, which instantly became the biggest cultural gaming phenomenon of the century. Armed with billions in new capital, Sweeney launched the Epic Games Store in 2018 to directly combat Steam's dominance. In 2020, Epic famously baited Apple into banning Fortnite from the App Store, triggering a multi-year, high-stakes global antitrust lawsuit over Apple's 30% revenue tax.
Epic Games utilizes its immense wealth to aggressively buy market share and build the infrastructure for the metaverse:
Operating as a private company (with massive investments from Tencent, Sony, and Disney), Epic Games holds an estimated valuation of $25 Billion. The company makes billions by selling digital, non-physical clothing ('skins' and 'V-Bucks') to Fortnite players. To lure developers away from Steam, the Epic Games Store only takes a 12% revenue cut from game sales, operating the storefront at a calculated loss in order to build long-term market dominance.
The epicgames.com web portal drives roughly 360 Million monthly visits. Its audience is heavily skewed toward younger demographics heavily engaged in the Fortnite ecosystem. The United States leads traffic at 22%, followed by highly active player bases in Brazil (8%), Russia, France, and Germany.