The Epic Games Store is losing Hundreds of Millions, but Tim Sweeney calls it a “fantastic success”

As part of their legal battle against Epic Games, Apple has managed to gain access to some of Epic Games’ financials, allowing them to reveal how much money the company has invested in the Epic Games Store, the company’s competitor to Valve’s Steam platform on PC.

Apple has revealed that Epic Games are set to lose at least $330 million in its battle against Steam to gain market share with their Epic Games Store. Apple has even alleged that Epic Games’ PC storefront will remain unprofitable until 2027. These estimates come as part of Apple’s arguments against Epic Games over the company’s ongoing antitrust battle.

Epic Games are suing Apple over alleged antitrust issues on iOS. On iOS, Apple has allegedly limited competition on its platform by limiting developers and users to its App Store and payments system. With these restrictions, Apple has secured huge profits for itself and had limited the ability of its competitors to compete with Apple’s apps within the iOS market.

By citing Epic Games’ losses with their Epic Games Store on PC, Apple is defending its monopolistic practices on iOS, implying that competitors to Apple’s App Store would not benefit consumers and that the benefits of Apple’s locked platform outweigh the benefits of opening the ecosystem. Epic Games refutes these claims by calling their losses investments in what will be a profitable business model. 

Epic Games has stated that their PC gaming storefront should turn an annual profit in 2023, with Tim Sweeney, Epic Games’ CEO, stating that their investments have been “a fantastic success in reaching gamers with great games and a fantastic investment into growing the business!”

The Epic Games Store has given away 103 free games to PC gamers, and the Epic Games Store has over 160 million PC customers. Thus far, Epic Games has invested heavily in exclusive PC content and free titles, which has brought many gamers to their storefront.