In 2022, the multi-platform free-to-play (F2P) gaming title Fortnite generated an estimated 4.4 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues. This figure decreased from the previous year when the battle royale title made about 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in revenues.

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has become one of the most popular games in the world. The battle royale game, in which up to 100 players fight it out at one time until one player is left standing, generated revenue of 3.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, down from 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018.

In 2024, video game publisher and software developer Epic Games is projected to generate approximately 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in gross revenues, up from 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

How does Epic Games make money? Epic Games' gross does not only include game revenue from the company battle royale hit Fortnite, but also engine revenue derived from game licenses and royalties, as well as Unreal Engine assets. Epic is the developer of the gaming engine Unreal Engine, which is currently monetized under a royalty model, meaning that is can be downloaded for free and Epic claims a percentage of sales revenue. Currently, Epic is not claiming a fee for developers that publish their games on the Epic Games Store. The Epic Games Store (EGS) was launched in December 2018. In May 2020, Epic announced that their share of royalties for games developed in Unreal Engine are waived until developers have earned their first 1 million U.S. dollars in revenue. Other income streams of the company include Epic Games Store revenue, and Merchandise and other revenue. Epic Games Store upsetting the industry standard One of the biggest headlines regarding the launch of Epic’s own digital storefront was the company’s attitude to developer / store revenue split. Gaming stores and app platforms including Valve’s Steam, the Apple App Store, or Google Play, usually take a 30 percent commission cut from game sales and in-game revenues. The Epic Games Store was released with the announcement that the EGS would only claim 12 percent of revenue, leaving 88 percent to the developers. This approach, as well as Epic’s attempt to circumvent Apple’s monetization strategies in the iOS app of Fortnite, has made many headlines, led to Apple removing the app from its App Store, and resulted in the still ongoing lawsuit Epic vs. Apple.

After a nearly five-year ban from the Apple App Store and Google Play, the battle royale hit made its return to mobile devices — at least on iOS. After a protracted legal battle between Epic Games and Apple regarding third-party payments, Fortnite returned to the iOS ecosystem in the United States. In May 2025, Fortnite's mobile app revenue amounted to 1.15 million U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the revenue of Fortnite mobile from Apple App Store worldwide in 2018. According to the data, Fortnite mobile grossed *** million U.S dollars on iOS in 2018, averaging *** million U.S. dollars per day.

In 2019, video game publisher and software developer Epic Games generated approximately 4.2 billion U.S. dollars in gross revenues, the majority of which was generated through its game revenue segment. Almost all of the segment's revenue was generated via Fortnite, with smaller titles Rocket League and Battle Breakers only netting a fraction of the total. Epic Games also publishes the Unreal Engine, a tool for developing games, as well as the Epic Games Store.

In 2024, video game publisher and software developer Epic Games is projected to generate approximately 907 million U.S. dollars in gross income, down from 1.83 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. In the most recently ended year, the company's gross revenue was estimated to be5.6 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2024, Epic Games had an estimated 4,358 employees worldwide, which represents a significant reduction from 2022 after a round of layoffs in September 2023. These layoffs affected 830 employees, which translated to about 16 percent of Epic’s workforce. How many people work on Fortnite? While it is hard to say how many of Epic Games’ employees work on the battle royale hit, it is safe to say that it is a significant number of employees. Most of the video game publisher and software developer's employees were working in the gaming segment, accounting for nearly 900 employees in 2019 when the company last revealed the figures publicly. For scale, these figures pale compared to Ubisoft, the gaming industry leader based on workforce. The French-headquartered company currently employs about 20,000 people. Video game industry layoffs The gaming company has also been affected by the wider tech industry layoffs that started rolling in at the beginning of 2023. Although the exact figures remain unclear, it is estimated that more than 11,000 video game industry workers were laid off in 2023. Additionally, 2024 is not shaping up to be much kinder, as already nearly 6,000 game developers lost their jobs during industry layoffs until the end of January.

Epic Games’ layoff of 830 employees is one of the largest of the 2023-24 industry shakeup , ranking fourth behind Unity Technologies (2,900 employees laid off in 3 rounds so far), Microsoft Gaming (close to 2,000 layoffs), Electronic Arts, and Sony Interactive Entertainment (both other 1,000 game devs laid off).

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has become one of the most popular games in the world. The Battle Royale game pits up to 100 players against each other at one time until only one player emerges victorious. Given the nature of the gaming world and of shooter games in particular, it comes as no surprise that the majority of Fortnite players are male – **** percent of the game’s players in the United States are male, in comparison to **** percent who are female.

The rise of Fortnite The meteoric rise of Fortnite can be seen no more clearly than in its registered user number. It recorded just one million users in its humble beginnings in August 2017, but this had soared to 250 million players by March 2019. The battle royale game is particularly loved by the younger generations – **** percent of users in the U.S. were aged between 18 and 24, and a further **** percent fell into the ** to ** age range. While the gameplay makes it easy to play just one game in a sitting, it seems that players are putting far more hours into their favorite game. Over ** percent of Fortnite players admitted to spending over ** hours a week playing the game and **** percent stated that they played between ** and ** hours weekly.

Fortnite raking in the revenue One of the biggest selling points of Fortnite is that it is free to play. This does not mean, however, that the developer, Epic Games, is not reaping the rewards for its hit game. Gamers can spend money on upgrades within the game for everything ranging from how their character looks to how they celebrate their victory. These in-game purchases were carried out by **** percent of Fortnite gamers in the United States, with modifications to outfits or characters being the most popular choice. As a result of these purchases, Fortnite generated revenue of *** million U.S. dollars in May 2018 alone, more than doubling the figure from February 2018.

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has become one of the most popular games in the world. The Battle Royale game, in which up to 100 players fight it out at one time, is especially loved amongst the younger generations as **** percent of Fortnite players are aged between 18 and 24, and a further **** percent are between ** and 34.

The rise of Fortnite Having amassed over *** million registered users in just two years, it is safe to say that Fortnite is nothing short of a gaming phenomenon. The developers of the hit, Epic Games, certainly picked the right time to enter the market as revenue in the Battle Royale premium console segment amounted to *** billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and was estimated to more than double to *** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Fortnite undoubtedly contributed to this estimated jump in revenue as the game generated *** million U.S. dollars in May 2018 alone and it also raked in considerable revenue through its mobile game. If Fortnite itself is free to play, how is it generating so much money?

In-game purchases key to success The answer is in-game purchases. Regular currency will not get you very far in the Fortnite universe, but it will give you access to V-Bucks, which will unlock everything from Fortnite outfits to celebrations (emotes) and gliders. It seems that players are spending their hard-earned money on making their Fortnite characters stand out from the crowd, with over two-thirds of Fortnite fans confessing to spending money on in-game purchases. The most popular upgrades were to the characters themselves and their outfits, whilst almost ** percent of in-game spending was on emotes, so that the victorious players could celebrate their victories in style.

In 2023, video game publisher and software developer Epic Games is estimated to generate approximately 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in losses before interest and taxes with the company's gross income declining while cost of sales goes up.

Michał Kamiński, playing under the ID Kami, was the highest-earning Fortnite player in Poland as of January 2025. Kamiński is the leading Fortnite player in the entire country. Between 2018 and 2025, the e-sports player accumulated over *** million U.S. dollars in prize money earnings.

The market size of PC gaming in the Netherlands was slightly above *** million euros in 2018, well behind revenues made in console gaming or app-based gaming. It is expected, however, that gaming on consoles will increase the most. The main driver behind this could be the success of Battle Royal games (a genre of video games where up to 100 players are pitted against each other in a fight for survival until only one player is left standing). PUBG (PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds), Apex Legends and especially Fortnite are the big frontrunners of this genre. Based on a ranking on the prize money earned by the leading eSporters in Fortnite from the Netherlands, 21-year-old Rojo (the gamer tag of Dave Jong) outperformed all other eSporters. This because of his second place on the Fortnite World Cup in July 2019, which won him *********** U.S. dollars.

First released at the start of 2017, PUBG: Battlegrounds (previously known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) is one of the most popular games on Steam and had 944,484 peak concurrent players in the last recorded month, July 2025. The highest number of concurrent players was recorded in January 2018 at 3.24 million. One of the biggest games on Steam PUBG gained a devoted legion of fans in a short space of time after its release, and cumulative unit sales of the game hit 75 million in December 2021. The game has also been critically acclaimed — it won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and its free-to-play mobile version for Android and iOS, released in 2018, was nominated for Best Mobile Game at The 2018 Game Awards. This critical success has also translated into commercial success, as the game generated millions of U.S. dollars of revenue, most successfully in the United States. On January 12, 2022, the game has become free to play. Battle of the Battle Royale games PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an online battle royale game in which up to 100 hundred players battle it out until there is only one player or one team left standing. This format of game has become very popular in recent years. While PUBG has a strong following, especially on Steam, it has come under pressure from rival battle royale game Fortnite. First released just several months after PUBG, Fortnite has since become a cultural phenomenon, amassing 500 million registered users in just six years. As of 2025, both PUB and Fortnite are still going strong with their loyal audiences.

Since it was first released by developer Bluehole in March 2017, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) has developed a loyal legion of fans. While the battle royale game only sold two million copies within the first few months of its Early Access release on Steam, this number had jumped to 50 million units just a year later in June 2018. As of December 2021, PUGB has sold over 75 million units worldwide on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. In January 2022, the game became free to play, meaning a purchase of the game was no longer necessary to play

One of the biggest games on Steam PUBG is an online multiplayer game which pits up to 100 players against each other at one time. The players must scavenge for weapons and items while killing enemies and trying to survive. The map shrinks over time in order to force the remaining players into combat until only one player or team is left standing. Given the scale of the game, it is unsurprising that it attracts large amounts of players – on the gaming platform Steam, PUBG peaked at almost 3.24 million concurrent players in January 2018. The game is also one of Steam’s biggest draws in terms of hourly average number of players – PUBG averaged almost 177.11 thousand players per hour in 2021. So is the game unrivalled in the battle royale genre?

PUBG’s biggest rival Not if you ask fans of Fortnite. Released by Epic Games in July 2017, just a few months after the launch of PUBG, Fortnite is a similar battle royale survival game. While it is not available on Steam, it can be played on PC as well as on all the main consoles. Similarly to PUBG, Fortnite became an overnight sensation and latest figures have the game at a staggering 350 million registered users. The mobile version of the game has also been a commercial success, generating annual revenue of 455 million U.S. dollars in the Apple App Store in 2018. Given that PUBG won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards 2017 and Fortnite won the very same award a year later, it seems that the rivalry between these games shows no signs of slowing down.

Published by Activision, Call of Duty (CoD) is a popular first person shooter video game series which first launched in 2003. The most successful game in the franchise is Call of Duty: Black Ops, which has sold over 30 million units worldwide since it was first released in 2010.

The continued success of CoD While the franchise was originally created exclusively for Windows, later versions were made available for numerous other platforms, including Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and OS X. In 2020, Activision branched out even further and released Call of Duty: Warzone, a free-to-play online battle royale game which pits up to 150 players against each other at one time. Within two months of its release, Warzone had amassed 60 million players across the globe, rivaling some of the other battle royale giants on the market, including Fortnite and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds.

Call of Duty goes mobile Although Call of Duty is traditionally seen as a console game, the mobile edition has also been a great success. In the first few months after its release in October 2019, the game amassed 250 million downloads worldwide, far eclipsing the respective downloads of its shooter rivals, PUBG Mobile and Fortnite. The biggest regional market for the mobile game was the United States, where it was downloaded 28.5 million times in the first two months of its release. Indeed, players in the United States spent more than 36 million U.S. dollars combined on in-game purchases within the mobile app in the first two months after the game's release.