Epic Games to allow Fortnite developers to sell in-game items

From December, Fortnite creators will be able to sell items directly from their Fortnite islands.

Epic Games announced the new in-game sales feature on September 18, 2025, revealing that creators will be able to create and sell “digital durable and consumable items they build for their games,” using Verse-based API and new UEFN tools. They can’t, however, sell physical items, such as t-shirts.

While developers will “ordinarily” earn 50% of the V-Bucks value from item sales, from December 2025 until December 2026, the rate will be 100%.

However, that doesn’t mean they’ll creators will earn 100% of sales revenue.

In the press release announcing this new sales feature, Epic Games explained how the share of in-game sales is distributed to creators.

“In recent years, Epic has been investing and operating the business at a loss”

Epic Games

To determine the V-Bucks value in US dollars in a given month, the company totals all customer real-money spending on V-Bucks (converted to US dollars) and then subtracts platform and store fees. These can range from 12% on the Epic Game Store to 30% on current consoles. Epic Games then divides this by the total V-Bucks spent by Fortnite players.

Fortnite’s average platform and store fees are currently 26%, Epic Games said, with “specific fees” ranging from 12% to 30% on consoles.

So, from December 2025 to December 2026, the 100% V-Bucks value creators will earn will translate to a roughly 74% cut of in-game sales.

From January 1, 2027, however, that amount will drop by half, a 50% V-Bucks value equating to a roughly 37% cut of in-game sales for creators.

Epic Games said the other 50% enables the company “to cover the costs of servicing the Fortnite ecosystem.”

“The funds that don’t go back to creators contribute to server hosting costs, safety, and moderation costs, R&D and other operating expenses,” Epic Games said. “In recent years, Epic has been investing and operating the business at a loss.”

In addition, Epic Games is updating its engagement payout formula, which issues payouts to creators based on engagement in their islands, to “better reward creators for bringing in new or reengaging lapsed players in Fortnite.”

The current payout formula adds 40% of the net revenue from Fortnite’s Item Shop and related real-money purchases into the engagement pool, which is distributed among creators’ and Epic’s islands.

But, from November 1, 2025, Fortnite creators “that bring in new or lapsed players” will receive 75% of those players’ contributions to the engagement payout pool for their first six months.

To identify players and islands that fall under this banner, Epic Games will factor in “signals from direct links, in-game search usage, and first-day playtime patterns.”

Epic Games is also changing the retention component of these engagement payouts, now rewarding “island-specific retention, rather than ecosystem-wide retention” to “better align with creators’ own efforts in growing this metric.”

However, to combat fraudulent engagement, this engagement payout formula will only consider players who have made purchases on their accounts.

“Since UEFN launched, players have spent over 11.2 billion hours across 260,000 live creator-made islands”

Epic Games

Epic Games has said this will “not reduce the total engagement payout pool,” it instead “shifts the calculation” so that the playtime of non-payers isn’t considered.

As such, the engagement payout formula now covers minutes played, new user acquisition, lapsed user acquisition, playtime surrounding V-Bucks spend, and island retention.

Epic Games is also introducing a “prominent” Sponsored Row in Discover on November 24 2025, so that “creators can choose to spend money to receive increased visibility for their islands.”

“All creators will have transparent market data to bid for placement in the row and enter an auction to surface islands in the new Sponsored Row,” Epic Games said. “All other rows in Discover will remain unchanged, continuing to provide organic visibility to islands.”

In the “long-term,” 50% of revenue from sponsorship generated by this feature will go into the engagement payout pool, but from launch until the end of 2026, 100% will enter the pool.

Other creator-focused additions coming to Fortnite include the ability for creators to set up campaigns in the creator portal, starting November 17, 2025, and the launch of Fortnite Creator Communities “in the next few months,” allowing creators to connect and share updates with their players.

“Since UEFN launched, players have spent over 11.2 billion hours across 260,000 live creator-made islands, which has resulted in $722,000,000 paid out to date,” Epic Games said.

“We’ll continue investing in new tools that unlock more development possibilities for creators.”