Epic Games Store vs Steam Is a Fight Epic May Never Win

Epic Games Store vs Steam returned to the spotlight on 24 August 2026 after Newzoo director of market intelligence Emmanuel Rosier argued that Epic may no longer be able to close the gap with Valve’s storefront. Epic pushed back with record third-party engagement and spending figures, while Newzoo itself later said Rosier’s remarks should not be treated as the company’s market assessment.

The distinction matters. Nothing in Epic’s response suggests a storefront collapsing or needing to recover from a new crisis. The dispute is about whether Epic can recover enough competitive ground to seriously challenge Steam, even while the Epic Games Store itself continues to grow.

Rosier’s Argument Is About Catching Steam, Not Epic Collapsing

Speaking in an interview with PC Gamer, Rosier said he did not see how Epic could “turn that around” because Steam had become “so inevitable”. His concern centres on player behaviour rather than whether Epic can keep operating a viable PC storefront.

The Epic Games Store has used free game giveaways as one of its most visible ways of attracting players since launching in 2018. Rosier argues that some users arrive to claim those games without shifting their broader purchasing habits away from Steam, describing the behaviour as closer to collecting games than actively moving platforms.

Blood West provides an unusually sharp example of that problem. When the game became free through Epic, its Steam sales reportedly increased by roughly 200% on the same day. The promotion attracted attention to the game, but some of that attention translated into purchases on Epic’s biggest rival instead.

Newzoo subsequently put an important guardrail around Rosier’s comments. The company said the remarks were not supported by Newzoo data or analysis, did not account for relevant public evidence, and should not be considered an official Newzoo market assessment.

Epic’s $400 Million Counterargument Changes the Picture

Epic Games Store vice president and GM Martin Keely responded with numbers that make a broader decline narrative difficult to support. Epic says players spent a record 2.78 billion hours playing third-party games through its store during 2025, while spending on third-party PC games increased 57% to an all-time high of $400 million.

Those figures do not prove Epic is catching Steam because no comparable Steam spending or market-share figure appears alongside them. They do prove something narrower but important: Epic’s third-party PC business grew substantially in 2025.

That creates two different definitions of success. If Epic Games Store “recovery” means attracting more third-party playtime and spending, its own figures already show strong progress. If it means becoming the dominant PC storefront or persuading established Steam users to relocate their libraries, Rosier’s argument becomes much harder to dismiss.

The latter is also a much higher bar. Epic does not merely need people to open its launcher or claim a game. It needs enough of them to make Epic their preferred place to spend money repeatedly.

The New Epic Launcher Can Fix Problems, But Not Player History

Epic is rebuilding its launcher from the ground up, with a June update saying the new client starts roughly 5 to 6.5 times faster on average. The accompanying storefront changes are expected to include personalised game recommendations, quicker-access categories and patch notes displayed directly in the store, while Linux support has also been discussed as part of Epic’s wider platform improvements.

Those additions attack genuine product shortcomings, especially for a storefront that launched at the end of 2018. They do not address every reason somebody may remain on Steam.

Steam users can have years of purchases, wishlists, reviews, friend connections, Workshop mods, community activity and playtime history accumulated inside Valve’s ecosystem. A faster Epic launcher lowers the friction of using Epic, but it does not transfer that existing investment from one platform to another.

That is where Rosier’s argument is strongest. Epic can make its store objectively better without automatically making Steam users feel any need to leave Steam.

Read More: Epic Games Store Launcher Rebuild – Everything Changing in 2026 | Steam vs Epic Games Store – How the PC Platforms Compare

Epic Has Been Fighting More Than Just Steam

Rosier also argued that Epic has spent the past several years competing across too many fronts at once. Beyond Steam, the company has challenged Apple and Google over mobile distribution while simultaneously operating Fortnite, Unreal Engine and its broader games business.

His suggestion is not that Epic should abandon everything else, but that Fortnite may be the area where the company already has the strongest platform position. Epic has increasingly treated Fortnite as a place where other videogame brands can participate rather than simply as competitors fighting for the same audience.

The current crossover slate includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Pac-Man, Crash Bandicoot, Mega Man, Sora from Kingdom Hearts and Joker from Persona 5. Rosier even suggested a GTA 6 trailer event inside Fortnite would make sense because publishers can use Fortnite’s audience as a marketing platform.

Recent collectible sprite mechanics add another layer to that strategy by giving players goals beyond winning a battle royale match. Fortnite can therefore keep expanding as a broader gaming platform without Epic first needing to defeat Steam in the conventional PC storefront race.

That side of Epic’s business has its own pressure, however. Epic recently laid off 1,000 employees following what the company described as a downturn in Fortnite engagement beginning in 2025.

Our View: Epic May Be Fighting the Wrong Definition of Winning

Our view is that Rosier is probably closer to the mark if the question is whether Epic Games Store can eventually replace Steam as PC gaming’s default storefront. Steam’s advantage is not one feature Epic can copy. It is the combined weight of libraries, communities, purchasing habits and years of player history that already exist inside Valve’s platform.

But that does not mean Epic Games Store has failed. A 57% increase in third-party spending to $400 million is difficult to reconcile with the idea that the storefront has no future. Epic can remain a meaningful and increasingly profitable PC games business without becoming number one.

That is why framing this solely as Epic “recovering” can be misleading. The evidence points to a store growing commercially while still facing an enormous challenge if its goal is to displace Steam. Those two conditions can exist at the same time.

Epic may therefore have more to gain by making its storefront good enough that players willingly use both platforms rather than treating every Steam user who stays on Steam as a defeat. Its free games can keep attracting users, the rebuilt launcher can remove longstanding friction, and Fortnite can give Epic a separate route to player attention that Valve cannot simply replicate through its storefront.

The 2026 Launcher Rebuild Is Epic’s Next Real Test

Epic says the improved launcher is still coming in 2026, and Keely expects its existing momentum to accelerate once the rebuild arrives. The important result will not be whether Steam suddenly loses its position. It will be whether Epic can turn its record 2025 third-party playtime and $400 million in spending into another year of sustained growth once the redesigned store is in players’ hands.