How to publish your game on the Epic Games Store after Steam

Of 5,860 paid indie games launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022, 523 (9%) are on the Epic Games Store today. More of them are on Xbox, and more are on Switch, though Epic is the one store of the three that anyone can enter for $100.

If your game is already out on Steam, Epic is open to you this week. Here is how Epic’s process works for a released game, what Epic takes, and what the games that went before you did.

We make games ourselves, and a second PC store is the job that sounds like an afternoon and never is. So we read Epic’s pages, then counted.

Epic’s door is open to anyone, for $100 a game

Since March 2023 Epic has let any developer publish through self-service tools in its Developer Portal. Nobody has to pick your game. Epic’s distribution page lays out the path:

1. Create an account at the Developer Portal and register your company. Epic says to have contact, tax and payout details on hand. You must be 18 or older.
2. Accept the agreements, including the Epic Games Store Distribution Agreement.
3. Build the listing in the portal: store page, price, offers and builds. Age ratings are handled inside the portal through IARC, and Epic says you can request store page localization at no cost.
4. Pay the fee and submit. Epic describes “a recoupable $100 USD submission fee per game,” paid before release. Its team then checks the game against the store requirements.

The engine doesn’t matter. Epic’s FAQ says the store “is engine-agnostic.”

The requirements are short, and three of them are real work for a game built around Steam.

It has to run as described. Products must launch, run, and match their store page.

Achievements. Epic’s documentation says: “If a product supports achievements through other PC storefronts that sell third-party products, that product must also support Epic Games Store achievements.” They must be “substantially similar” to the Steam set.

Multiplayer. “Multiplayer games must support crossplay across all PC stores.” An Epic buyer has to be able to play with a Steam buyer. If your matchmaking runs on Steam’s networking alone, that is the expensive line in this list.

Patch notes are also required for major updates, so each big Steam patch becomes two releases.

Epic takes nothing on a game’s first $1 million a year

Since June 1, 2025, Epic’s revenue share page says developers keep 100% of the first $1 million in net revenue per product, per calendar year, on payments Epic processes. After that the split is 88% to you and 12% to Epic. The FAQ adds: “No opt-in required.”

Valve’s standard share on Steam is 30%, falling to 25% only past $10 million of a game’s Steam revenue. So below $1 million a year, a sale on Epic pays you the whole net price and the same sale on Steam pays 70% of it.

Two details in Epic’s FAQ matter for an older game. The threshold belongs to the title, so it follows the game if the game changes hands. And it resets every January 1, whenever the game launched.

Epic First Run, the programme that pays 100% for six months with no cap, is closed to you. Epic limits it to a game “which has not been previously released on another third-party PC store.”

Epic’s FAQ also still names Now on Epic, its 2023 programme for older games. On October 13, 2026, Epic’s own link to it led to the general distribution page, with no terms to read. Plan on the standard share.

One in eleven of the indie games we tracked is on Epic

We took every paid indie game that launched on Steam from 2020 to 2022 and drew at least 10 Steam-purchase reviews in its first year. On October 13, 2026, we read Epic’s whole US store listing, 7,129 base games, and matched titles and credits.

523 of the 5,860 (9%) are on sale on Epic. The same games are more often on a console, where someone has to approve the game and the port is far more work.

1. Nintendo Switch (1,322 games)22.6%
2. Xbox consoles (980)16.7%
3. GOG (613)10.5%
4. Epic Games Store (523)8.9%

Paid indie games launched on Steam 2020 to 2022 with 10+ Steam-purchase reviews in year one. US stores. Switch read September 29, 2026; GOG October 7; Xbox October 12; Epic October 13.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam, Nintendo, Xbox, GOG and Epic store data

70% of the 5,860 are on none of the four.

A bigger Steam audience made Epic likelier, as it did everywhere else.

1. 10 to 99 reviews (4,209 games)4.0%
2. 100 to 299 (776)14.0%
3. 300 to 999 (474)21.5%
4. 1,000 or more (401)35.7%

Paid indie games launched on Steam 2020 to 2022 with 10+ Steam-purchase reviews in year one. Share with a matching released base game in the US Epic Games Store, read October 13, 2026.

Source: Strike Two analysis of Steam and Epic store data

Review score made no difference. Among games with 100 or more first-year reviews, 22% of those at 80% positive or better are on Epic, and 21% of the rest.

A publisher made a large one. Games with a publisher on Steam are on Epic 18.5% of the time. Self-published games, 4.9%: 200 of 4,112. The gap holds in every size band.

That 4.9% is almost exactly the self-published share we found when we measured how games get onto GOG, which was 4.7%. GOG chooses its games. Epic takes all comers. The open door and the curated one let through the same share of solo developers, so the fee was never the obstacle. The second build is.

Most Epic versions come after Steam, under the same name and price

At least 282 of the 523 (54%) state an Epic release date after their Steam release, a median 18 months after. 109 came more than two years later.

It is “at least” because the date on an Epic page is the developer’s own entry, and some late arrivals enter their original release date. Another 46 games went the other way and were on Epic six months or more before they reached Steam.

The self-publishing tools changed who arrives. Of the late arrivals dated before the tools opened, 32% were self-published on Steam. Of the 176 dated since, 57% were.

And they come as themselves. Only 36 of the 523 games (7%) are sold on Epic by a company that appears nowhere in the Steam credits. Among self-published developers who arrived after Steam, 111 of 135 sell under their own account.

Compare the Xbox numbers: there, 59% of self-published developers who arrived late went through a publisher they had not used on Steam. A console needs someone who holds the agreements and the hardware. Epic needs you and your own time.

Price is settled too. 452 of the 523 (86%) carry exactly their Steam US base price on Epic. 35 are cheaper on Epic and 36 are dearer. Almost nobody passes the saved 30% on to players, and you don’t have to either.

When Epic is the wrong move

You expect a second Steam. Epic’s 2025 review reports $400 million spent on third-party PC games across a catalogue of more than 6,000. Spread evenly, which store revenue never is, that is about $67,000 a game for the year, and Epic’s figure is what players paid, taxes included.

Epic shows no public review counts, so we could not measure what a late indie arrival earns there.

Your multiplayer is Steam-only. Crossplay across PC stores is a requirement, not a suggestion.

The game leans on Steamworks. Workshop mods, Steam Input, Steam Cloud saves and Steam leaderboards have no automatic twin. Achievements must be rebuilt in any case.

You are hoping for the free-game slot. Epic gave away 100 games in 2025, and Epic chooses them. Self-publishing does not come with one.

You have no time for two of everything. Two builds, two sets of patch notes, two support inboxes, for as long as the game lives.

Steam still has room. A major update with a visibility round, or fixing regional prices that have sat untouched since launch, will usually reach more buyers for less work.

What to do next

1. Register in the Developer Portal and read the Distribution Agreement before you write any code. The $100 is due only before release.
2. List what in your game touches Steamworks. That list is your port.
3. If the game is multiplayer, decide how an Epic buyer will meet a Steam buyer before anything else.
4. Rebuild your achievements to mirror the Steam set.
5. Match your Steam price, as 86% of the games here do, and join Epic’s seasonal sales the way you join Steam’s.
6. Keep the two stores apart in your books for the first year. Only your own numbers can say whether the second store paid for its upkeep.

If you would rather hand the extra stores to someone else, that is part of what a publisher does after launch. The same decision for consoles is in our Switch post.

How we measured it

• Games. Every paid indie game (Steam’s Indie tag) that launched on Steam from January 2020 to December 2022 with at least 10 Steam-purchase reviews in its first 12 months: 5,860 games, the same population as our Switch, Xbox, GOG and Steam Deck studies.
• Epic records. The US “browse” listing of base games on store.epicgames.com, read in full on October 13, 2026: 7,129 listings, 5,844 of them released. Each carries a title, developer and publisher names, the seller account, a stated release date and a US list price.
• Matching. A listing counts when its title matches the Steam title, ignoring punctuation and edition words, with a developer, publisher or seller credit shared across the two stores. An exact title of six or more characters also counts without a shared credit, unless Epic dates it six months or more before the Steam game. Numbered sequels don’t count.
• Checks. We read all 9 matches without a shared credit and removed seven, all generic titles belonging to other games. We read all 25 matches resting on a partial title and removed eight remakes and spin-offs. Thirty random matches with a shared credit were all the same game. None of the 150 largest unmatched games has a released Epic listing.
• Timing. Epic’s stated release month against the later of the game’s Steam launch month and its Steam release date. We did not use listing creation dates. Epic rebuilt many listings in 2024 and 2025, including games that launched there.
• Seller and price. A new company means neither the Epic seller nor the Epic publisher name matches any Steam credit. Prices compare Epic’s US list price with the Steam US base price we read on October 6, 2026.
• Limits. US store, one day. Games removed from Epic and renamed versions are missed, so the 9% is a floor. Epic shows no rating or review counts, so nothing here says an Epic release paid off. The four stores were read on different days within two weeks.