Fortnite’s move into in-game item sales is giving advertisers a new incentive to ramp up spending.
On Thursday, Sept. 18, Epic Games announced that Fortnite creators will be able to sell virtual items directly through their experiences on the metaverse platform starting in December. Creators will receive all revenue from in-game item sales after platform and store fees from December through to the end of 2026, with their share dropping to 50 percent from 2027 onwards, according to an Epic spokesperson in an official blog post announcing the update. An Epic Games representative declined to comment on this story.
“Creators can sell the digital durable and consumable items that they build for their games,” the spokesperson wrote in the blog post. “At this time, sales will be limited to digital items only.”
By implementing in-game item sales, Epic Games is taking cues from Roblox, where in-game sales represent a huge source of business for both creators and the brands that integrate into their experiences and items. Forever 21, for example, sold millions of virtual black beanies inside Roblox in 2021 and 2022, with each item selling for between $0.50 and $0.70. The official Fortnite blog post about the update directly referenced Roblox, citing a statistic shared by Roblox showing that 25 percent of all in-experience dollars on the platform are currently spent on items.
Over the past year, some creators have started to make the jump from Fortnite over to Roblox due to their perception that the latter platform has superior creator monetization tools, according to David Taylor, CEO of the Roblox data analytics platform Creator Games, who declined to share specific numbers regarding the shift. The introduction of in-game item sales could help slow or stop the flow of creators from Fortnite to Roblox — and even convince some Roblox creators to dip their toes into Fortnite, per Taylor.
Fortnite is effectively undercutting Roblox: Fortnite’s in-game item revenue split is more advantageous for creators than Roblox’s revenue split, with Roblox creators receiving between 30 and 70 percent of revenues from sales of in-game items like clothing and accessories, compared to Fortnite’s announced 100 percent.
“The folks who are coming from Fortnite to Roblox are typically creator studios. They’re operating businesses — thinking, ‘how do I generate more revenue?