Industry: | Video Games |
Net Worth/Valuation: | $32 billion |
Latest Revenue: | $1.2 billion (2021) |
Year Founded: | January 15, 1991 |
Public/Private Company: | Private |
Notable Shareholders: | Tim Sweeney (Founder, CEO) |
Epic Games is Frequently Associated With
- Valve (Steam)
- Fortnite
- Grand Theft Auto
- Genshin Impact
- EA Sports
- Riot Games
- Blizzard
- Ninja (Tyler Blevins)
Net Worth of Epic Games
The company Epic Games is currently valued at roughly $32 billion. The latest revenue reported for the year 2021 was $1.2 billion, much of that being from one of the most popular games ever produced, Fortnite Battle Royale. The company has been around for over 30 years and is continuously growing and acquiring intellectual property.
Epic Games is Best Known For
Epic Games is quite easily best known for Fortnite Battle Royale at the moment. It’s a battle royale game launched in 2017 that followed in the footsteps of another one called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). It currently boasts around 30 million users per day and 3 to 4 million concurrent players at any given time. It still undergoes active changes and updates and has no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Epic Games – The Beginning
Epic Games was created by Tim Sweeney in 1991 under the name Potomac Computer Systems in his parents’ house while he was going to school at the University of Maryland to study for becoming a mechanical engineer. Potomac Computer Systems was originally a computer consulting business, but after Tim Sweeney made some analysis, he realized it would be too much work to keep the company running and scraped the idea.
Upon publishing his first game ZZT, Sweeney decided to use Potomac Computer Systems to take his game public and eventually changed the company’s name to Epic MegaGames, Inc until 1999 when it was shortened to just Epic Games.
About the Founder of Epic Games
Tim Sweeney is the founder and CEO of Epic Games. He was born in 1970 and created the Unreal Engine that is so widely used in today’s video game industry. He grew up in Potomac, Maryland and attended the University of Maryland, where he got his degree in mechanical engineering. He himself has a net worth of over $7 billion.
What is Unreal Engine?
Epic Games is also known for creating Unreal Engine, which is a 3D graphics engine that was used to produce the FPS game Unreal back in 1999. Since then, this engine has been used to make countless top-tier games such as:
- Final Fantasy VII (the remake)
- Playerunknown’s Battlegound (PUBG)
- Valorant (Riot Games)
- Gears of War
Unreal Engine’s technology was also used to help produce shows such as Westworld and The Mandalorian.
Epic Games Battle with Apple and Google
In 2020, Epic Games release a discount via their store for Fortnite in-game currency which encouraged the user to bypass Apple and Google’s app store to purchase from Epic Games directly. This caused Apple and Google to remove Fortnite from their app stores, citing a breach of contract.
In late 2020, Epic Games filed a lawsuit with Apple and subsequently with Google. The judge ended up ruling against Epic Games and not only ordering them to pay Apple $3.6 million in lost revenue but also banning Epic Games from publishing on Apple app store in the future.
Epic Games received massive support from other companies, agreeing that Apple’s 30% cut of revenues for any apps listed in the store is ridiculously high. As a result of the trial, Apple made the decision to lower their fees to 15%.