Epic is "rebuilding the underlying architecture" of the EGS launcher as it continues to take the fight to Steam

Epic Games has today released some rather impressive stats based on user data and sales numbers that illustrate some decent growth over the course of 2025. These include all-time high numbers for money and time spent on third-party games, and a record 78 million monthly active users across the entire Epic Games Store. However, while I'll shower you with all the stats shortly, I want to first focus on Epic's commitment to improving the experience on its platform - something that's consistently holding it back in its fight against Steam.

While Epic boss Tim Sweeney has sent several jabs Steam's way over the years, he's recently been on a real mission to highlight Valve's shortcomings and the positives of the Epic Games Store. While he's absolutely right to celebrate how developer-friendly Epic is (it lets devs use their own payment platforms, allows them to keep their first $1 million of revenue, then only charges a 12% commission for anything above that) the typical, knee-jerk counterargument from a lot of PC gamers is this: Steam is simply a better platform to use every day.

In today's unveiling of EGS stats, Epic also lays out some major enhancements coming to its storefront in the near future.

"This year we're focused on delivering long-requested features and deeper platform improvements," Epic says. "We're in the process of rebuilding the underlying architecture of the Epic Games Store Launcher and plan to ship improvements this summer. These changes will make the storefront on the launcher responsive and feel good to use, with fast load times and greater stability." It also lists an expansion of its social features, regional storefronts with "localized discovery," and a "cross-platform library for players across PC and mobile."

It also confirms that more Epic-exclusive pre-order incentives will be provided for some of the biggest third-party games of the year. We've already seen this in action with Crimson Desert - pre-ordering on EGS will get you a Fortnite skin of protagonist Kliff MacDuff - and this program will expand throughout the year. It lists several studios that it's already agreed partnerships with, including S-Game (almost certainly for Phantom Blade Zero), Capcom, and MiHoYo.

Barring a major faux pas from Valve, I think Epic knows it'll never get EGS to replace Steam as the market leader for PC gaming storefronts. However, that doesn't mean it can't eat into its dominance, and changes and improvements such as these can help it get there. You can be as developer-friendly as you want (and I applaud Epic for that), but if players don't then stick with your platform to play that increasingly large library of games, you're only getting halfway there.

However, it does look like things are on the up. Epic's 2025 review puts third-party spending and game time front and center.

"We have some huge news for you: player spending on third-party PC games grew 57%, reaching an all-time record of $400 million!" Epic says. "Because developers who process their own in-game payments keep 100% of their revenue, this record spending doesn't even include some of the biggest live service titles like Marvel Rivals, Valorant, and GTA V, as well as premium titles like EA Sports FC 26.

"Another all-time Epic Games Store record: Players spent 2.78 billion hours in third-party games. 35% of those player hours were in third-party games where developers used their own payment solutions for in-app purchases."

Across all games on the Epic Games Store, users racked up 6.65 billion total gameplay hours last year, and while that is an overall decline versus 2024, time spent in third-party titles increased by 4%.

There are also some juicy numbers on those taking advantage of the weekly free Epic games that get dished out. Interestingly, Epic recognizes the impact the incentive has for those games on Steam, something that Sweeney discussed on social media a couple of weeks ago.

"In 2025, players claimed 662 million titles through the program. Over 77% of games set an all-time peak CCU [concurrent users] record on the Store during the week of their free offer. This delivered a measurable halo effect across the broader PC ecosystem, including a 40% lift in Steam CCU while the title was free on the Epic Games Store."

So, a strong 2025 for Epic, but the gap to Steam in terms of users and positive sentiment from PC gamers is still fairly large. The changes it's outlined, however, will go some way towards closing it, even if it may take more than new social features and Fortnite freebies to tear longtime Steam users away.