Epic Games Store
Ranked 4 of 6 game stores by recommenders
Recommended for lower developer fees (0% on the first $1m, then 12%) and a faster, lighter client than Steam. Most common caveat: no user reviews and a slow, bloated client.
Recommended for lower developer fees (0% on the first $1m, then 12%) and a faster, lighter client than Steam. Most common caveat: no user reviews and a slow, bloated client.
192 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 37
- criticize it
- 155
- approval share
- 19%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 37 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Lower developer fees than Steam
“Epic Games has always offered lower fees and their CEO has been advocating for small developers for years.”
Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “So long Google, and thanks for all the nudes” “Epic charges 12% (with the first $1m free) vs. Valve’s frankly extortionate (i.e. industry standard) 30%.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “Epic's seems reasonable at 12% and only after the first million in revenue per year.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Stripe Clinches over $7B Deal to Buy AI Firm OpenRouter” - Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you”
- Comment from 25 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls”
- Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client”
- Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “Epic celebrates "the end of the Apple Tax" after court win in iOS payments case”
- Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “All Delisted Steam Games”
- Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame”
Faster downloads and launch than Steam
“the Epic Games Store downloads faster, installs more efficiently, and launches games faster than Steam”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “It loads 10x faster, takes half the memory, every action is instant and it finally has a clear UI.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “I no longer care to work on any Ruby gems so I've archived all my repositories” “From my own testing the Epic launcher is still significantly faster than steam at launch”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Steam Client is now faster than Epic's new vibe coded launcher” Free games every week
“my epic library is so huge, because of the free games, i cant play all of them anyway”
Comment from 9 Feb 2026 in “We All Have Steam Libraries. What Happens When They're Gone?” “They give out free games every week.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “The new (and vibe coded) Epic Games Launcher” Works fine for many users
“I never had issues with GOG or Epic (where I buy less to be honest)”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts” “For all intents and purposes it's "functioning" for me.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts” “No issues with other stores.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
No user reviews or ratings
“Game ratings/reviews and the "join a game" friend functionality are the only things that I would miss”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Steam Client is now faster than Epic's new vibe coded launcher” “The major feature that EGS lacks and which makes it appealing to indies and repulsive to gamers is user reviews.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “"gamers dont matter" policy (no reviews, no community, worse services) and low fees and failed miserably”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “GOG is getting acquired by its original co-founder: What it means for you” - Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Today's Layoffs”
Slow, bloated client
“Unfortunately just clicking on the "Featured Discounts" items on the store home page.. 3-4+ FULL seconds of blank until the game details load.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “EGS is (or least was) really damn slow to start (never mind to launch an actual game). Linux support is non-existent.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “Shit bloated code is one of the reasons Epic Launcher is extremely behind in market share when compared to Steam.”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 on Hacker News - Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't”
Poor Linux support
“EGS is (or least was) really damn slow to start (never mind to launch an actual game). Linux support is non-existent.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls” “it's not enough to make me want to stop avoiding Epic for future purchases on account of poor Linux support”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “GOG: Linux "the next major frontier" for gaming as it works on a native client” “If Epic wasn't actively hostile toward Linux (to the point of calling Linux cancer) I could be persuaded”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Today's Layoffs” Distrust over exclusivity deals
“I feel that I can't trust them as a marketplace.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “Epic Games announces Lore version control system” “burning hundreds of millions of dollars per year on exclusivity deals, which are extremely anti-consumer”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Epic Games to cut more than 1k jobs as Fortnite usage falls”
Other game stores people recommend
The four most recommended other game stores, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam | 716 | 384 | 65% | 13 | 20 yrs45 owners | — |
| GOG | 250 | 49 | 84% | 12 | — | Approved |
| itch.io | 39 | 2 | 95% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Epic Games StoreThis page | 37 | 155 | 19% | 12 | — | — |
| Humble Bundle | 20 | 6 | 77% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 219 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It loads 10x faster, takes half the memory, every action is instant and it finally has a clear UI.”
“Game ratings/reviews and the "join a game" friend functionality are the only things that I would miss”
“From my own testing the Epic launcher is still significantly faster than steam at launch”
“in a way others (like Epic) haven't”
“It may be faster than Epic”
“Storefronts run into problems because of bad ideas and bad incentives.”
“They give out free games every week.”
“Epic Games has always offered lower fees and their CEO has been advocating for small developers for years.”
“Epic's seems reasonable at 12% and only after the first million in revenue per year.”
“Epic being willing to throw billions at trying to dethrone Steam”
“I feel that I can't trust them as a marketplace.”
“Better yet if you use Heroic instead of the official Epic launcher”
“No issues with other stores.”
“the EGS client single-threads its downloads and does a lot of CPU-heavy work as part of those downloads”
“Shit bloated code is one of the reasons Epic Launcher is extremely behind in market share when compared to Steam.”
“Epic takes nothing on first million revenue and then 12 percent.”
“using the EGS sucks in every way possible compared to using Steam”
“EGS is (or least was) really damn slow to start (never mind to launch an actual game). Linux support is non-existent.”
“Anticonsumer isn't anti competitive. Especially not as a new player in the game.”
“If Epic wasn't actively hostile toward Linux (to the point of calling Linux cancer) I could be persuaded”
“The major feature that EGS lacks and which makes it appealing to indies and repulsive to gamers is user reviews.”
“Epic charges 12% (with the first $1m free) vs. Valve’s frankly extortionate (i.e. industry standard) 30%.”
“Unfortunately just clicking on the "Featured Discounts" items on the store home page.. 3-4+ FULL seconds of blank until the game details load.”
“the Epic Games Store downloads faster, installs more efficiently, and launches games faster than Steam”
“burning hundreds of millions of dollars per year on exclusivity deals, which are extremely anti-consumer”
“It doesn't have sort by rating (or any other popularity metric) so you have to wade through the junk.”
“full access to third party game stores (Steam, Epic, etc)”
“my epic library is so huge, because of the free games, i cant play all of them anyway”
“Steams 30% cut while Epic is 0% up to $1m is concerning.”
“it's not enough to make me want to stop avoiding Epic for future purchases on account of poor Linux support”
“I am now looking into GOG (I have my first GOG game now and playing it), Epic and Luna”
“Epic Games shines — they take a much lower cut”
“Epic Game Store cut is 0% on the first million and only 12% after that”
“EGS takes a significantly smaller cut from developers”
“"gamers dont matter" policy (no reviews, no community, worse services) and low fees and failed miserably”
“Epic Game Store must register and upload every single APK for every app they offer”
“Epic store has the lowest royalties by a hefty margin”
“how easy it is to install Steam and Epic (Heroic)”
“I never had issues with GOG or Epic (where I buy less to be honest)”
“For all intents and purposes it's "functioning" for me.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.