Epic Games is introducing a significant new revenue stream for creators within Fortnite, allowing them to design and sell in-game items. This move is a direct challenge to platforms like Roblox and represents a major shift in how creators can monetize their custom islands, the player-built experiences within the game. Previously, creator earnings were tied solely to the amount of time players spent on their islands. The new model empowers developers to create both consumable and durable items using upcoming tools in Unreal Editor for Fortnite and a new Verse-based API. Players will purchase these items using the game’s virtual currency, V-Bucks, and creators will receive a portion of that spending. Epic is starting with an exceptionally generous revenue share to incentivize adoption. From December 2025 through the end of 2026, creators will keep 100 percent of the V-Bucks value from sales on their islands. After this promotional period, the standard rate will be a 50 percent share for creators. The company justifies its standard 50 percent cut, which is higher than the common 30 percent store fee, by stating it needs to cover server hosting, safety moderation, research and development, and other operational expenses for Fortnite. Epic also claims it has been operating this segment of its business at a loss. The actual monetary value of these V-Bucks earnings requires some calculation. The value is not a simple one-to-one conversion from V-Bucks to US dollars. Epic explains that it determines the value by taking all real-money spent on V-Bucks in a month, subtracting platform and store fees which average 26 percent, and then dividing that figure by the total V-Bucks spent by players. This means that a 50 percent share of V-Bucks value equates to approximately 37 percent of the original retail spending, while the 100 percent share equals about 74 percent of the money spent by a player. In addition to item sales, Epic is launching a new paid discovery feature. Developers will have the option to pay for placement in a Sponsored row within Fortnite’s Discover feed, potentially increasing visibility for their islands. New community tools are also being provided to help creators build forums and share updates to better engage their player bases. These changes are the latest step in Epic’s long-term strategy to transform Fortnite from a popular battle royale game into a broader metaverse platform hosting a diverse range of games and social experiences, including its own racing, music, and survival builder spin-offs. By empowering creators with robust monetization tools, Epic aims to cultivate an active, self-sustaining ecosystem similar to Roblox, hoping to capture the same benefits of user-generated content. This strategy, while lucrative, comes with acknowledged risks regarding user safety and moderation that Epic appears willing to manage in pursuit of its platform ambitions.
