Epic First Run Program | Keep 100% of Revenue for Six Month Exclusive
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Direct distribution to over 295 million Epic users across 187 countries with 16 languages supported.
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This opt-in exclusivity program offers 100% revenue share for your first 6 months, no matter how much you earn.
Program Featuring
Placements across home page, collection pages and editorial opportunities for participating exclusive games.
Unreal Savings
Unreal Engine royalties are waived on payments processed by Epic Games.
Epic Rewards
Engaged Epic players earn rewards with every store transaction and save more by applying them towards future purchases.
Product Lifecycle Tools
Self-service discounts, access to seasonal sales and a weekly discount program to complement your commercial strategy.
Epic First Run Program FAQ
Epic First Run is an opt-in exclusivity program that offers third-party developers 100% net revenue on eligible products in their first six months of exclusivity on the Epic Games Store, no matter how much you earn. When the exclusivity period ends, the revenue share captured from user spending will revert to our standard 100%/0% revenue share up to your first $1M net revenue, and 88% / 12% after that.
The $1M net revenue threshold applies per product, per calendar year — regardless of when an Epic First Run term ends. For example, if a title earns $700K during Epic First Run, the next $300K that year still qualifies for 100% revenue share before reverting to 88%/12% if over $1M is achieved.
This program is open to developers and publishers with registered Epic Games developer accounts and eligible products launching on or after October 16, 2023.
A new release game or app which has not been previously released on another third-party PC store or included in a subscription service available on another third-party PC store.
Games or apps with a pre-existing exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store are not eligible for the program.
Because blockchain, distributed ledger, NFT and other similar products may not use Epic-administered methods per Epic's platform terms, they may not participate.To create an account, go to the Developer Portal website at dev.epicgames.com/portal (Opens in new tab) and follow the instructions to sign in then register your organization and products. For more information, please see our Developer Portal account creation guide.
Registration is open through our self-publishing tools flow in Dev Portal. If you have a confidential question, please log in (Opens in new tab) and start a private discussion (Opens in new tab) with the topic Epic Games Store and the subtopid ‘Epic First Run'. If you’re already a partner, please reach out to your Epic Games Store account manager directly.
The exclusive tag on-store will be removed from the product and the revenue share captured from user spending will return to our standard terms of 100%/0% up to your first $1M in net revenue, and 88%/12% after that.
It has never been easier to bring your games to the Epic Games Store. In March 2023, we launched our self-service publishing tools to streamline the onboarding and release process. The tools allow developers to register, set up, test and distribute their games all directly through the Epic Developer Portal.
Read more about the benefits and requirements of self-publishing on the Epic Games Store in our self-publishing tools announcement blog (Opens in new tab), and visit our distribution page (Opens in new tab) to sign up. For more on the Store’s current player numbers and trends, visit our latest Year in Review.
Yes, but your product must launch first on the Epic Games Store and remain a PC store exclusive for the first six months to be eligible.
Yes, as long as your full product launches first on the Epic Games Store and remains a PC-store store exclusive for the first six months.
Yes, if you launch into Early Access before going to a 1.0 release, the period that you are in Early Access does count towards your six-month exclusivity term
Yes, participating products can also be released simultaneously on publishers' own stores or launchers with direct sale to users, distribution of Epic Games Store digital redemption code, or by using the Epic Games Store’s keyless distribution system to streamline the purchase experience.
Yes, but you must use our keyless distribution system (Opens in new tab) to fulfill those purchases. We have partnered with several other digital stores to support this feature via account linking. Once a user links their accounts between the digital retailer and Epic Games, purchased products are added to the players’ Epic Games Store library without the need to redeem a digital code.
The keyless distribution system (Opens in new tab) allows users to link their Epic Games account with other third-party stores for direct entitlement of purchased products without the need to enter a 20-digit redemption code. We are currently integrated with Green Man Gaming, Fanatical, Genba Digital, Humble Bundle and more. Please note, developers must work directly with third-party stores to register and list their products.
When a product is unenrolled or terminated from the Epic First Run program, all revenue captured from player spending from the product’s launch date reverts to the standard 100%/0% revenue share up to your first $1M in net revenue per product, per year, and 88%/12% after that. Revenue share would be calculated as though the product never participated in Epic First Run. The revenue share stated in your distribution agreement will retroactively apply to all product sales. Epic Games might apply amounts otherwise owed to you to satisfy any revenue shortfall until that amount is recouped.
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