Epic用户数增长依赖《堡垒之夜》 第三方游戏销售额下滑

Epic Games Store在去年12月正式迎来了五周年，虽然围绕其平台的一些激烈争论有所平息，但这并不意味着它已经取得了成功。作为针对谷歌诉讼的一部分，Epic承认EGS至今尚未实现盈利，并且他们已发布了2023年度回顾统计数据，尽管他们试图以积极的方式解读这些数据，但实际上看起来并不十分乐观。

正面来看，Epic Games Store的用户数量在2023年增长至2.7亿，相比2022年增加了4000万，月活跃用户在12月份突破7500万，全年总消费额达到9.5亿美元，同比增长16%。听起来相当不错，对吧？然而实际上，几乎所有增长都来自Epic自家的游戏，尤其是势不可挡的《堡垒之夜》——如果将Epic自家游戏从统计中剔除，第三方游戏的消费额仅为3.1亿美元，同比下滑了13%。这一第三方回报的下降趋势发生的同时，EGS的库存也显著增加，新增超过1300款游戏。

换句话说，Epic Games Store基本上仍然是PC玩家获取《堡垒之夜》的主要渠道，但在那之外，尽管Tim Sweeney坚持认为EGS正在追赶Steam，但事实上在2023年其地位有所下滑。除去Epic自家游戏，在EGS上表现最出色的2023年游戏包括《死亡岛2》（Epic PC平**占）、《GTA V》以及免费游戏《原神》。由Epic出资独占的《心灵杀手2》虽未能进入前五名，但也位列前十，与《霍格沃茨遗产》和《荒野大镖客：救赎2》等游戏并列。

Epic在2023年继续大力推行免费赠送游戏活动，共有5.68亿份免费游戏被领取。年内发布的86款免费游戏总价值相当于每位Epic用户获得了约2055美元的优惠。

The Epic Games Store officially turned 5 years old in December, and while some of the fiery debate surrounding the storefront has died down, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a success yet. As part of their lawsuit against Google, Epic admitted the EGS still isn’t profitable and now they’ve released their 2023 Year in Review stats, which they obviously try to spin in a positive way, but don’t really look that promising.
On the positive side, Epic Games Store users rose to 270 million in 2023, up 40 million from 2022, monthly active users topped 75 million in December, and overall spending was 950 million, up 16 percent. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, it turns out pretty much all that growth comes from Epic’s own games, most notably the unstoppable Fortnite – when you take Epic’s own games out of the mix, spending on third-party games was only $310 million, a 13 percent year-on-year decline. This decline in returns for third parties happened despite the EGS catalog growing significantly, with over 1,300 titles being added.
In other words, the Epic Games Store basically remains the place you go to get Fortnite on PC, but beyond that, despite Tim Sweeney’s insistence it’s catching up with Steam, it actually lost standing in 2023. Beyond Epic’s own games, the top titles on EGS in 2023 were Dead Island 2 (an Epic PC exclusive), GTA V, and the free-to-play Genshin Impact. The Epic-funded exclusive Alan Wake 2 didn’t make the top 5, but it was in the top 10 alongside games like Hogwarts Legacy and Red Dead Redemption 2.
Epic also continued their focus on giving away lots of freebies in 2023, with a slightly-absurd 568 million free games being claimed. The 86 free games released in 2023 represented a value of $2,055 per Epic.
Other than Fortnite, did you play anything on the Epic Games Store in 2023? I have no particular beef with EGS, although the launcher mostly went neglected in 2023 aside from trying out Star Trek: Resurgence. I suspect next year will be largely the same.