Epic games published his first Fortnite Flash forward to the ecosystem year of 2024, and there is much to celebrate.
Epic said Fortnite UEFN (Unreal Editor for Fortnite) paid out $324 million to developers in 2024. The number of developers in the ecosystem nearly tripled to 70,000 and they released more than 198,000 islands (games/experiences).
There is also a lot of traffic on these islands, with an average of almost 60,000 islands being played per day. And over 70% of players play both developer-created games and Epic-created games like Battle Royale.
The average number of players in developer-created games increased consistently annually in 2024, with the number of daily active players increasing by 15%; Total playing time increased by 5%. And there has been significant growth in non-fighting game genres.
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The creator community continues to grow rapidly, with the number of creators nearly tripling from 24,000 in 2023 to 70,000 creators in 2024. The number of published islands also doubled in 2024 to a total of 198,000, including 137,000 islands created in the UEFN.
While engagement varies seasonally from month to month, the average number of players interacting with Creator Islands daily, monthly and annually has increased overall this year, with the average number of players per day increasing by 15% in 2024 is.
Epic said it’s inspiring to see more developers finding success in the Fortnite ecosystem. In 2024, a total of $352 million was paid out to creators, an increase of 11% when measuring the March-December 2023 to 2024 periods.
In 2024, players spent 5.23 billion hours playing developer games – a number that represents 36.5% of total Fortnite playtime and continues to rise. This represents a 5% increase over 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, deathruns and horror. So far in January 2025, this type of varied content has accounted for more than 30% of time spent on creator-created experiences, up nearly 50% from the same period last year.
New features and devices
In 2024, Epic improved the possibilities of what developers can create with UEFN by introducing the first-person camera device, new UI tools and HUD controls, input triggers, proximity chat, persistence, custom NPCs, and many other impactful features .
In the Creator Portal, Epic introduced new ways to understand a creator’s audience, with improvements to analytics and metrics around your payouts, your player base, and the introduction of island satisfaction data. Epic also introduced Creator Profiles to help players find all relevant islands in one place, and Favorites for a Creator to help you build audiences in Fortnite.
In 2024, popular IPs joined UEFN and Fortnite Creative, allowing you to create innovative games and experiences using official assets and gaming devices from The LEGO Group, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Fall Guys. This initiative allows you to develop authentic commercial games with world-class IP without getting bogged down in contracts or negotiations, and is made possible with a single agreement.
Among Epic’s highlights this year was Love-is-Real’s ARPG Fort Knight Legend, which pushes the boundaries of Verse UI, Verse persistence and RPG elements to deliver an immersive and exciting experience.
Another was TeraCreators’ Havoc Hotel 2 (Roguelike), which set the standard for roguelike PVE in Fortnite, combining custom UI, RPG elements and retention mechanics to captivate players across RPG and tycoon genres.
There was Lumberjack Heroes by ItsJacky, which showcased the power of UEFN with its custom UI and addictive game loop. The island’s depth of gameplay inspired other developers 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, prefabricated parts, and devices to create an authentic and engaging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles experience.
Finally, Epic highlighted Gauntlet’s The Kraken: Bossfight, a polished role-playing game (RPG) that took the community by storm. With addictive quests, exploration, dungeons and a challenging boss fight, it sets a new standard for immersive gameplay.
Looking ahead
Looking ahead to 2025, Epic plans to give developers more options. This includes moving Scene Graph into beta testing, introducing custom assets, and introducing additional tools to help developers create deeper, more complex games in new and popular genres with UEFN.
The company acknowledged that improvements need to be made to UEFN and the creator experience. The company is committed to increasing stability, improving engagement times during development, giving developers insights and tools to maintain and grow a post-launch player base, and making Discover the best representation of the wide variety of games , which are available to players.
Later this month, Epic will update the public Fortnite Creators Roadmap to let developers know what other features and updates they can expect throughout the year. The company will discuss the roadmap in detail and in further discussions at Unreal Fest in Orlando, June 2-5.
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