Longer Playtimes, Bigger Payouts: Epic's New Fortnite Creator Reward System

The virtual realm of Fortnite, developed by Epic Games, is innovatively altering the landscape for its creators by introducing a "time played" metric to its remuneration calculations for creators of Fortnite experiences, also known as "islands". This move comes as the first major tweak to the revamped payout system that was rolled out in March alongside the company's Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

The new payout system, which returns 40 percent of the game's net revenues to the creators, was initially launched to invigorate the creation of new Fortnite islands and potentially deter creators from migrating to rival platforms like Roblox. As a novel twist, the time spent playing in Fortnite islands will now weigh heavily in the overall metric calculations, according to Epic's official blog post.

Despite these changes, Epic assures that its updated creator payout system has been more rewarding than its predecessor, the Support-A-Creator (SAC) program. In its blog post, Epic mentioned, "The top 1,000 island creators saw a 5.2x median increase in earnings through engagement payouts over SAC in March." The revised system was implemented in April's creator payouts, resulting in "an increase of 1.45x more total money paid to creators when compared to March."

Looking ahead, Epic's forecast for the coming year shows that a select few Fortnite island creators could potentially earn over $1 million, with a handful surpassing the $10 million mark. However, the data also highlighted a relatively low number of creators currently earning significant amounts. Nonetheless, considering the program's recent inception, these initial figures might not necessarily reflect future trends.