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News video games 24 June 2020, 13:48

author: Damian Strozek

Free Games Work - Epic Games Store is Becoming Increasingly Popular

The creators of Epic Games Store boasted some stats, from which we learned that the last period was a record one for the store in terms of user interest. But how does it compare to its biggest competitor, Valve's Steam?

Free Games Work - Epic Games Store is Becoming Increasingly Popular - picture #1
Epic knows how to attract players.

One thing needs to be said about Epic Games - it sure knows how to pull publicity stunts. The game giveaway program at Epic Games is in its second year, and the list of titles that players could get for free is really impressive. It is worth mentioning that Tim Sweeney's company has given away games worth more than $2000. In addition, recently, on Epic Games Store, as part of The Vault action, such famous titles as GTA V, Sid Meier's Civilization VI or ARK: Survival Evolved could be added to our account for free.

Steve Allison, the head of the platform, spoke about the giveaway itself:

"Since launching the Epic Games Store, we've always wanted to create a huge event around our very successful Free Games weekly program to give something awesome to players worldwide, and we decided to go big.

The results have exceeded our expectations... In 2020, we've been growing at a historic rate."

And as we can see, the tactic has brought significant results. According to Epic, the number of players using Epic Games Store increased to over 61 million during The Vault promotion (between May 14 and June 18). The number of users simultaneously playing on the platform reached a record 13 million.

It should be noted that these results are not only due to the free games policy. Epic also owns the still extremely popular Fortnite and a lot of temporary exclusive titles that cannot be played anywhere else.

How does Epic Games compare to Steam?

Epic vs Steam - who wins? | Image: Alex Castro / The Verge

The data on user interes in Epic Games Store may be pretty impressive, but it's worth comparing it with the results of its biggest competitor, Steam. As we have recently reported, Steam has raised its activity record to 22,379,088 users.