Epic Games: Fortnite and Unreal Engine Maker Profile

Epic Games, Inc. is an American interactive entertainment and 3D engine company based in Cary, North Carolina. It makes Fortnite, runs the Epic Games Store and develops Unreal Engine, which is used in games, film, television, architecture and car design.

The company matters now because it is in the middle of a reset. In March 2026 it cut more than 1,000 jobs after Fortnite engagement fell, and in June 2026 it announced Unreal Engine 6 as the next step for its tools.

Epic Games: The Company Behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine — Epic Games headquarters in Cary, North Carolina, 2016. Photo: Sergey Galyonkin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Overview and Founding

Epic was founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney, who still leads it as chief executive. It began as a shareware business selling his first game, ZZT, and later took the name Epic MegaGames before becoming Epic Games.

Through the 1990s it published PC titles such as Jazz Jackrabbit, Epic Pinball and Tyrian. The 1998 shooter Unreal was a modest seller, but the engine behind it was licensed widely and turned Epic into a technology supplier as well as a game studio.

In the 2000s the company built console games, including the Gears of War series, whose rights Microsoft later bought. Fortnite followed in 2017, and its free Battle Royale mode quickly became Epic’s largest product.

Today Epic says it has dozens of offices worldwide and more than 800 million accounts across Fortnite, Fall Guys, Rocket League and the Epic Games Store. Through these products and Epic Online Services, it offers developers a full chain to build, sell and run games.

Key Milestones

1991: Tim Sweeney releases ZZT, the company’s first game.
1998: Unreal is released, and its engine is licensed to other studios.
2017: Fortnite launches on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Mac.
2022: Sony Group and KIRKBI invest 1 billion dollars each, valuing Epic at 31.5 billion dollars.
2024: The Walt Disney Company announces a 1.5 billion dollar equity investment and a Fortnite-connected universe.
2026: Epic lays off more than 1,000 employees in March.
2026: Fortnite returns to Apple’s App Store worldwide in May.
2026: Unreal Engine 6 is announced at Unreal Fest Chicago in June.

What It Does

Fortnite is Epic’s main consumer product. It is now a set of first-party experiences, including Fortnite Battle Royale, LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival, alongside games built by outside creators.

Unreal Engine is the company’s technology business. Epic says it powers many leading games and is used across film and television, broadcast and live events, architecture, automotive and simulation. Disney, for example, has used it for more than 15 theme park attractions.

The Epic Games Store sells PC games from Epic and other publishers. Since June 2025, developers keep all of their first 1 million dollars in yearly net revenue per product before the standard 88/12 split, and they can use their own payment systems without paying Epic a fee on those purchases.

The store also gives away games through its Free Games Program. Players claimed 662 million titles that way in 2025, and spending on third-party PC games in the store rose 57 percent to a record 400 million dollars.

Epic has drawn large partners. Sony Group and KIRKBI, the holding company behind The LEGO Group, invested in 2022, and Disney is working with Epic on a persistent universe of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar content connected to Fortnite.

The dispute over app store rules has shaped Epic’s mobile business for years. Our report on Fortnite going offline on iOS worldwide covered one stage, and its return to the US App Store another.

Fortnite also has a following in the Kingdom, as our report on esports and Fortnite audiences in Saudi Arabia described.