Thanks to Fortnite, Epic Games Apparently Had a $3 Billion Profit in 2018

There’s no doubt that 2018 was the year of Fortnite. It absolutely took over both the games industry and the world. It’s certainly been a success story for developer Epic Games, and even that sounds like an understatement. In fact, Epic Games had a fantastic 2018, supposedly ending the year earning a staggering $3 billion in profit! (Remember, that’s profit, not revenue.)

Now, there hasn’t been any official word on Epic, which is a private company, on this number. This is based on various estimations from how much Fortnite has made on the numerous platforms it’s on. However, there is a chance that this number is ultimately off due to a number of factors. This number doesn’t appear to take into account the presumed spike in players Fortnite will get during the holiday season, thanks to the launch of Season 7 and release of the Fortnite Deep Freeze Bundle.

In addition, Fortnite hasn’t made a huge splash yet in China yet, which is a huge money-maker for most entertainment properties. There is still is the chance for Fortnite to really catch on in that country, and if it does, we could see Epic make even more.

As many of you already know, Fortnite is free to play. However, it features a variety of microtransactions, from the Battle Pass to numerous in-game cosmetics. The fact that Epic was able to make such a huge profit on a free-to-play game is a major accomplishment.  The success of Fortnite has led to more than the huge profit, however. Epic Games is now valued at around $15 billion, which is a huge increase from just a few months ago, where it was valued at around $8 billion.

Epic Games does have more than Fortnite to draw money from. It recently launched the Epic Games Store for PC users, where Epic takes only about 12 percent of revenue. And, of course, there’s Epic’s very own Unreal Engine, one of the most-used engines in the industry. Sadly, another one of Epic’s mainstays, Unreal Tournament, is currently on hold, ironically because of the success of Fortnite.

Epic certainly had a big year, from opening new studios to big acquisitions. Now, the question remains whether it can maintain this success going into 2019. Even if it doesn’t, there’s one thing for certain: Fortnite isn’t going away anytime soon.

[Source: TechCrunch]