For a while, the Epic Games Store showed potential as a challenger to Steam’s long-standing dominance. However, as we approach 2025, the excitement surrounding EGS’s exclusive deals and developer-friendly revenue splits have long since faded, replaced instead by developers who have come to learn the truth—it takes more than money to make a good digital games distribution platform.
Gearbox Entertainment CEO Randy Pitchford learned this the hard way after annoucing Borderlands 3 as an EGS exclusive in 2019, a move that was part of Epic’s aggressive push to secure high-profile titles for its then-fledgling platform. At the time, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford even went so far as to predict that Steam might “look like a dying store” within 5-10 years.
Fast forward to the present and Steam is bigger than ever, enjoying new peak player numbers following the influx of Chinese gamers enjoying Black Myth: Wukong. The perspective of Pitchford has also evolved, as he went on X to acknowledge that his inital optimism regarding EG’s potential to disrupt the PC gaming market was “misplaced or overly optimistic.”
There are plenty of reasons behind Epic’s failure to dent Steam’s market share. Most crucially, Epic’s strategy of securing exclusive titles seems to have backfired. While it worked for a while, it also alienated a significant portion of gamers who prefer to keep their libraries consolidated on a single platform, which preferably isn’t EGS.
Despite raking in money from the earlier, more lucrative years of Fortnite, Epic didn’t equip EGS with a competitive feature set and user experience that could rival Steam.
To date, EGS lacks many quality-of-life features that Steam users can enjoy, including user reviews, community forums, and robust library management tools. These are important features that make users stay on a platform for a long time.
EGS’ front page, which prominently features mobile game advertisements instead of curated PC titles, is also a point of contention.
While Epic has focused primarily on attracting developers and publishers with more favorable revenue splits and upfront payments for exclusivity, Steam prioritizes the end-user experience. This strategy has allowed Steam to maintain its loyal user base, which in turn continues to attract developers seeking the largest possible audience for their games.
Better products and filling gaps are what pull users to software. It’s why Discord is as popular as it is today despite coming in late to the party in an industry once dominated by Skype. You can’t just strongarm people and buy your way into relevance. This only works temporarily.
Despite criticisms that Steam does little to earn a 30% revenue cut, the platform does provide significant value outside of putting games in front of the most eyes on the internet although that certainly doesn’t hurt.
Steam offers APIs and tools that simplify various aspects of game development and distribution, including server hosting, matchmaking, anti-cheat systems, and even community engagement features. Additionally, Steam’s investment in technologies like Proton, which enables Windows games to run on Linux, has expanded the potential market for developers without requiring additional work on their part.
No other platform does as much as Steam does, which is why many publishers are perfectly fine with the 30% revenue cut that Valve asks from them.
The challenge now is for Epic to strike a balance between attracting developers and improving the user experience enough to make users want to stay.
Don’t forget, players show up for the games, not the store front. It took years for gamers to warm up to Steam and it only happened after Valve put in the time to add convenience and features, significantly impacting user retention and ongoing interest.
EGS’ exclusivity deals may provide short-term financial benefits but it’s becoming a lot clearer now in the eyes of developers, publishers, and players that until another platform can invest the same amount of dedication to user experience as Steam, its dominance among PC gamers will remain.
