// News // 10th Feb 2022 — 2 years ago // By Artura Dawn

Epic Games Store 2020 and 2021 Year in Review Comparison

The Epic Games Store is starting to rack up quite a few years under its belt; with 2022 being its fifth anniversary, are things looking up for Steam's newest competitor?

This year, we're doing the same as we did in 2021, where we compare both years and see how it's looking for Epic Games. With the recent release of the Year in Review, we are be able to compare all of the information from both years and see if it's doing better, worse, or if it's stagnated.

New Store Features

Throughout 2020, Epic Games added what is easily one of the most important features any store should have: the wishlist. In the first years of the store's launch, players did not have access to this feature. Along with the implementation of wishlisting, the store also received mod support, 19 new currencies, and eight other features.

Meanwhile, in 2021, Epic Games received another feature that is imperative in any store: the shopping cart, which can hold up to 50 items in total. Aside from that, the store is now working on more profile-based features, adding the Epic Achievements in October. Along with these two, the store received 12 new features (similarly to last year), which are:

An updated navigation system to facilitate finding everything the Epic Games Store has to offer.
A new way to quick-launch the most recently played games.
Improvements to the Social Panel and Presence to see what friends are playing.
An easier way to discover New Releases, Top Sellers, and Coming Soon.
Categories and genres for the products in the store.
Email notifications for the release of games on the wishlist.
A brand-new Epic Games wallet for US & Canadian users.
Improved product pages, with more information and media present.
New Epic Games Store Newsletter Email.
13 new currencies were added in 2021, making the new total 43.

With substantial features being added in 2021, it's safe to say that the Epic Games Store outperformed last year by a landslide. All of these features were teased in 2020's Year in Review in the "What's coming in 2021" section. With this in mind, let's move on to the next big thing...

What's Coming in 2022?

The first thing announced for 2022 should ease plenty of users' minds: Free games will continue throughout the year.

Aside from that, Epic Games has its focus on fleshing out profiles, where users will be able to see their achievements, playtimes, and more.

Another important feature coming to the Epic Games Store is quality of life improvements to the Library and Download management, including a feature to prioritise and queue games for downloads, more options to filter and organise libraries, and more.

These aren't the only substantial updates coming this year, however, with the Epic Games Store setting its sights on other significant improvements, such as:

Continued iteration of social features, including voice on platforms with game agnostic parties.
The (crucial) implementation of community-driven ratings and polls.
Game Hubs to stay up-to-date with games in the user's library and games they follow.
Expanding the "Epic Wallet" to the rest of the world.
Continued improvements to launcher speed and performance.

These changes have been added to the Epic Games Store Roadmap on Trello, so make sure to keep an eye out for future updates on it if you're interested.

End of Year Results

And last, but certainly not least, the End of Year results. This is where we compare all the stats with the ones present from last year, including users, money spent, the number of free games, and more.

First up we have the total and monthly users. In 2020, the Epic Games Store had 160 million users, with more than 56 million monthly users.

In contrast, the Epic Games Store had 194 million users in 2021, with a total of 62 million monthly users. A whopping 21.25% increase in total users, and a 10.714...% increase in monthly users.

Summary

Total Epic Games Store Users:
2020: 160 million
2021: 194 million (+34 million users)
+21.25% increase

Total Monthly Epic Games Store Users:
2020: 56 million
2021: 62 million (+6 million users)
+10.714...% increase

Next up, we have the amount of money spent by users.

Last year we saw a measly 2.941...% increase in spending from $680 million (approx. £502 million) to $700 million (approx. £516 million).

However, this year the Epic Games Store made a staggering $840 million (approx. £620 million) from purchases made by users. That is an immense 20% increase throughout the year, and leagues away from the increase seen from 2019–2020.

Meanwhile, the amount spent by players on third-party PC games in the Epic Games Store went up 5.577...% from 2019–2020, with a total of $265 million (approx. £195 million) spent in 2020.

That number went up to a total of $300 million (£221 million), with an increase of 13.207...%. Although not nearly as massive of a change as the total spent, it is still a large one.

Summary

Total Sum Spent by PC Players:
2020: $700 million
2021: $840 million (+$140 million)
+20% increase

Sum Spent by PC Players on Third-Party Games:
2020: $265 million
2021: $300 (+$35 million)
+13.207...% increase

The next stat we will be taking a look at is the Epic Games Store's free games. In particular, the amount of games that were given and their total price, the total average score of the free games, and how many games were claimed.

Throughout 2020, the Epic Games Store gave a total of 103 games, all with an estimated total value of $2,407 (approx. £1,776), an average score of 77% on OpenCritic, and a total of 749 million copies claimed.

In comparison, 2021 gave a total of 89 games, all with an estimated total value of $2,120 (approx £1,564), an average score of 76% on OpenCritic, and a total of 765 million copies claimed.

In a surprising change of events, 2021 lost one of its categories to 2020, with 14 games fewer throughout the year, a lower total price, and a lower average score on OpenCritic. That being said, more players claimed games this time around.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that although the total value for all of the games have decreased, the average value per game increased. While we saw an average of $23.368… in the price of the games present throughout 2020. In contrast, 2021 had an average of $23.820… A measly +1.932…% increase, so you make the judgement of whether the fewer games is worth the higher average price.

Summary

Total Games Throughout the Year
2020: 103
2021: 89 (-14)
-13.592...% decrease

Estimated Value of Games Given Away
2020: $2,407
2021: $2,120 (-$287)
-11.923...% decrease

Average Price
2020: $23.368…
2021: $23.820…
+1.932…%

Copies Claimed
2020: 749 million
2021: 765 million (+16 million)
+2.136...% increase

The Epic Games Store has been slowly increasing its followers on social media, and this shows due to the increases seen from 2020 to 2021.

Epic Games had a fruitful year on social media in 2020, with all of the percentage increases being among the dozens. In particular, Instagram reached a total of +137% increase in followers. This year the numbers weren't so drastic, yet they continued growing.

In 2021 Epic Games saw an increase from 5.5 million Instagram followers to 5.8 million, from 4.1 million Twitter followers to 4.4 million, and from 1.1 million Facebook followers to 1.3 million.

Summary

Instagram
2020: 5.5 million
2021: 5.8 million (+300,000)
+5.454...% increase

Twitter
2020: 4.1 million
2021: 4.4 million (+300,000)
+7.317...% increase

Facebook
2020: 1.1 million
2021: 1.3 million (+200,000)
+18.181...% increase

And finally, the 10 most popular titles in the Epic Games Store were:

Although we obviously don't expect an overlap throughout the years, three titles are present from last year: Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, and Rocket League. The difference throughout the two years are:

Fortnite went down from its third spot to seventh.

Grand Theft Auto V rose from its ninth spot to third.

Rocket League went down from its seventh spot to ninth.

Verdict

The Epic Games Store has had quite a great year. Although the number of free games given away was reduced, every other statistic had substantial increases in contrast to 2020, with the highest one being total Epic Games Store users. The years are looking good for Epic Games Store; however, the numbers will have to continue increasing for Epic Games to be able to beat the behemoth that is Steam.

Does Epic Games have what it takes to prove itself a worthy competitor to Steam? Only time will tell, and 2022 may be a crucial year for that.