Epic Games spread his first Fortnite ecosystem year review for 2024, and it has a lot to celebrate.
Epic said that Fortnite UEFN (Unreal editor for Fortnite) will pay out $324 million to creators in 2024. Nearly tripled creators in the ecosystem to 70,000, and published more than 198,000 islands (games/experiences).
These islands are getting traffic too, as almost 60,000 islands were played per day on average. And 70+% of players play both creator made games and Epic made games like Battle Royale.
Average players in creator-made games increased annually overall in 2024, with daily active players up 15%; total hours played were up 5%. And there was significant growth in non-combat game genres.
More details
The creator community continues to grow at a rapid pace, with the number of creators almost tripling from 24,000 in 2023 to 70,000 creators in 2024. The number of islands published also doubled to 198,000 in 2024, including 137,000 islands created in UEFN.
Although engagement varies monthly due to seasonality, the average number of players engaged in crafting islands daily, monthly and annually has increased significantly this year, with average daily players up 15% in 2024.
Epic said it has been encouraging to see more creators succeeding in the Fortnite ecosystem. A total of $352 million was paid to creators in 2024, up 11% when the March-December 2023 to 2024 periods were calculated.
In 2024, players will spend 5.23 billion hours playing creator-made games – a number that represents 36.5% of Fortnite's total play time and is still rising. This represents a 5% increase from the 4.98 billion hours in 2023.
These numbers are fueled by significant growth in non-combat game genres, such as social role-playing, party games, death rush, and horror. As of January 2025, this type of blended content has accounted for more than 30% of time spent in creator-made experiences, an increase of nearly 50% from the same period last year .
New features and tools
In 2024, Epic expanded the capabilities creators can build with UEFN with the launch of the First Person Camera tool, new UI tools and HUD controls, Input Triggers, Chat Proximity, Persistence, Custom NPCs, and much more influential characteristics.
In the Creator Portal, Epic introduced new ways to understand a creator's audience, with improvements in analytics and metrics about your payments, your player base and the inclusion of island satisfaction data. Epic also launched Creator Profiles to help players find all relevant islands in one place, and Creator Favorites to help you build an audience within Fortnite.
Beloved IPs came to UEFN and Fortnite Creative in 2024, allowing you to create innovative games and experiences with The LEGO Group, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Fall Guys assets and play tools. This initiative allows you to develop authentic commercial games using world-class IP without getting lost in contracts or negotiations, and is enabled by a single agreement.
This year, Epic's featured islands included the ARPG Fort Knight Legend with Love-is-Real, it pushed the boundaries of Verse UI, Verse Persistence, and RPG elements to deliver a great and exciting experience.
Another was Havoc Hotel 2 (Roguelike) by TeraCreators, which set the standard for PVE roguelikes in Fortnite, mixing Custom UI, RPG elements, and retention mechanics to engage players beyond gaming genres. role and tycoon.
There was Lumberjack Heroes by ItsJacky, showcasing the power of UEFN with its custom UI and engaging gameloop. The depth of island gameplay inspired other creators to push the boundaries of Tycoon-style content.
And another popular one was the Pizza Shop Tycoon Boss Fight Update! by TomJank, used TMNT templates, prefabs, and tools to create an authentic and engaging experience for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Finally, Epic announced The Kraken: Bossfight with Gauntlet, a smart role-playing game (RPG) that took the community by storm. With engaging quests, exploration, dungeons, and advanced boss fights, it sets a new standard for immersive gameplay.
Looking forward
As Epic looks ahead to 2025, it plans to unlock more opportunities for creators. Includes moving Scene Graph into beta testing, introducing custom objects, and launching additional tools to help creators build deeper and more complex games with UEFN in new and popular genres.
The company admitted that it has improvements to make on UEFN and the creator experience. It said it is committed to increasing stability, improving interaction times during development, giving creators insight and tools to maintain and grow a player base after launch, and making the best representation of the wide range of games available for players.
Later this month, Epic will update the public Fortnite creation roadmap to let creators know what other features and updates they can expect throughout the year. The company will discuss the roadmap in detail, along with more in-depth discussions, at Unreal Fest in Orlando, between June 2nd and June 5th.
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