Epic Games Store vs Steam market share

Steam processed over $10.8 billion in transactions in 2024 — roughly ten times what the Epic Games Store generated in the same period. Six years after Epic launched its storefront with an 88/12 revenue split designed to pull developers away from Valve, the gap in platform spending has actually widened, not narrowed. Here is what the numbers show.

Epic Games Store vs Steam Statistics: Key Numbers for 2024

How Many Users Does Steam Have Compared to Epic Games Store?

Steam averaged 132 million monthly active users and 69 million daily active users in 2024. Epic reported 67.2 million average monthly active users and 31.5 million daily active users across the same period.

Steam’s peak concurrent user count hit 39.3 million in December 2024, driven largely by its Winter Sale. Epic’s best daily active user figure that year was 37.2 million — a number that includes Fortnite mobile players, not PC-only activity.

Source: DemandSage, Game Developer, Icon Era

Steam vs Epic Games Store Revenue Comparison (2024)

Steam generated $10.8 billion in total platform revenue in 2024, a 24.14% increase from $8.7 billion in 2023. The Epic Games Store reached $1.09 billion, up 14.74% from $950 million the prior year.

The third-party revenue figure for Epic is where the story gets complicated. Despite overall spending rising on Epic’s platform, revenue from third-party games via Epic Payments fell 18% year-on-year to $255 million in 2024. Steam’s estimated third-party developer revenue, calculated on a standard 70% split, ran roughly $7.56 billion.

Source: DemandSage, Game Developer, Icon Era, GamesMarket Global

Epic Games Store vs Steam Developer Revenue Split

Epic’s standard revenue split gives developers 88% of sales, compared to Steam’s base rate of 70%. For a small studio earning under $10 million, the difference is real. Steam’s cut improves to 75% after the first $10 million in revenue, and 80% after $50 million — but Epic stays at 88% regardless of sales volume.

From June 2025, Steam introduced a new tier allowing developers to keep 100% of their first $1 million in revenue. Epic previously ran a “Now on Epic” program with a similar 0% royalty for back-catalog titles, extended through at least January 2026.

Source: Icon Era, Game Developer, Sacra

Epic’s “Launch Everywhere” program cuts Unreal Engine royalties from 5% to 3.5% for games that launch simultaneously on EGS and other storefronts. It does not require exclusivity — it rewards multiplatform releases that happen to include Epic’s store. More developers used this program in 2024 than in any prior year, according to Epic’s own Year in Review.

How Large Is the Epic Games Store Catalog vs Steam?

Steam listed 117,881 games at the end of 2024 and added 18,634 new titles during the year — a 31.75% increase over 2023’s additions. The Epic Games Store carried roughly 4,000 titles, adding approximately 1,100 in 2024.

The catalog gap is one of Steam’s structural advantages that Epic cannot close quickly. Developers publishing on Steam accept a lower base revenue split in exchange for access to a much larger active buyer base. For most studios, that trade-off still favors Steam as the primary release platform.

Source: DemandSage

Epic’s Free Games Program: Numbers and Impact

Epic gave away 89 free games in 2024 with a combined retail value of approximately $2.2 billion at US market prices. Users claimed those titles 595 million times. The program has pushed Epic’s registered PC user base to 295 million, up 25 million from 2023.

Converting those users into paying customers for third-party developers remains the platform’s central challenge. A user who claims free games regularly has less incentive to purchase new releases through Epic’s store, which is reflected in the 18% drop in third-party payment revenue even as total platform spending rose.

Source: Epic Games 2024 Year in Review, Game Developer

Steam’s Sale Culture and Community Economy

Steam’s Winter Sale 2024 generated over $950 million across 35,000 discounted titles. Seasonal sales — Summer Sale, Winter Sale, Lunar New Year, and others — accounted for 58% of all purchases on Steam in 2024. That buying pattern is deeply ingrained among PC gamers and has no direct equivalent on Epic’s platform.

Steam’s Community Market processed over $500 million in transactions in 2024 alone, with Valve taking a 30% commission on Workshop sales. Trading cards, community items, and user-generated content function as a parallel economy that keeps users financially active on Steam outside of game purchases — something Epic has not replicated.

Source: Icon Era

Epic Games Store vs Steam: Where the Gap Could Close

On PC, the market share numbers are unlikely to shift dramatically in the near term. Steam holds three-quarters of digital distribution, and its sale culture, community economy, and catalog depth are compounding advantages that take years to build.

The more plausible route for Epic is mobile. Cross-platform accounts reached 898 million in 2024, driven partly by the EGS mobile app expanding to Android and iOS in Europe. If Epic scales its storefront model to mobile at scale, the PC revenue comparison becomes less central — the platforms stop competing on the same terms.

For now, the data tells a clear story: Steam’s user base spends money, Epic’s user base claims free games. Until that behavioral gap narrows, the revenue disparity will hold.

FAQ

Sources

• Steam Statistics 2024 — DemandSage
• Epic Games Store 2024 Year in Review — Game Developer
• Steam Statistics and Facts — Icon Era
• Epic Games Store Revenue and Market Data — Sacra