Selling PC games outside Steam, from Epic to your own website

The PC routes side by side

A PC studio can sell through Steam, through another store, or on its own. The difference that matters for direct sales is whether the store lets your game take payment itself, and what it charges when it does not.

Rates are as of October 2026. The Steam guide covers Valve’s rules and tiers in full.

Epic Games Store: 0% on the first $1M, then 12%

Since 1 June 2025, Epic has let developers keep all of the first $1 million a product earns through Epic’s payments each year:

Above $1 million, the standard 88/12 split applies. Epic’s FAQ sets out how the threshold works:

• It runs per product, not per publisher. A product with several publishers shares one threshold.
• It follows the calendar year and resets on 1 January, whatever the launch date.
• It combines revenue across PC, Mac, iOS, iPadOS and Android.
• Where a product has a recoupable obligation under a separate agreement with Epic, Epic recoups that first.

For a product that takes $3 million through Epic’s payments in a year, Epic keeps nothing on the first $1 million and $240,000 (12%) on the next $2 million. That is 8% overall.

Epic First Run

Epic First Run is an opt-in exclusivity program. Epic describes it as offering a “100% revenue share for your first 6 months, no matter how much you earn.” When the First Run period ends, any room left under the $1 million threshold for that year still applies.

Your own payments inside an Epic game

Epic lets games take in-app payments through their own payment system, and takes no revenue share on them. Epic’s 2025 year in review put it this way:

Unreal Engine games carry one catch. Epic’s distribution page says: “In-app purchases and products using their own payment processor are not exempt from engine royalties.” Work out what your Unreal Engine license charges on those sales before you compare Epic’s payments with your own. For a game on another engine, own-payment purchases on Epic carry no fee from Epic.

Epic Web Shops and what they cost

Epic announced on 1 May 2025 that Web Shops would launch in June 2025. Epic hosts the Web Shop, and players buy there outside the game client:

Players earn 5% in Epic Rewards on Web Shop purchases. Epic’s year in review describes Web Shops as “cross-platform webshops that developers can offer on PC and mobile,” available “even if their game isn’t in our Store.”

Epic has not published a Web Shop rate of its own that we could confirm. When we wrote this page, Epic’s revenue share FAQ said that revenue Epic processes from any source, Web Shops included, counts toward the same $1 million threshold. Epic’s FAQ and store pages have blocked our re-checks since 22 September 2026, including in October, so treat that as unconfirmed, and read your agreement for the rate above $1 million before you plan on it.

Microsoft Store on Windows: 12%, and games must use Microsoft’s billing

Microsoft’s App Developer Agreement (version 8.11, in effect since 17 April 2026) sets the Store Fee for PC games at “Twelve percent (12%) of Net Receipts.” It also requires games to use Microsoft’s commerce engine for the game and for any in-app products used within it.

The Store Policies spell out what that means inside the game. Section 10.8.1 of the version in force today (7.19, effective 14 October 2025) says:

Microsoft’s store policies (version 7.20, effective 22 October 2026) keep the same sentence; the change history lists no change to section 10.8 in that version, and Microsoft had published nothing newer by 7 October 2026. Games are on the list of products that must use Microsoft’s API. Three details matter for a direct-sales plan:

1. A game may not direct players from inside the Microsoft Store build to your web shop or any other way to pay.
2. It may let players use content they already bought elsewhere. That clause is the basis for cross-platform entitlements. From 22 October 2026, version 7.20 also requires games on Xbox network that sell cross-platform content elsewhere to offer the same or better deal in the Microsoft Store, bonus currency included. The consoles guide covers both.
3. Games offered inside a PC gaming subscription product, meaning a catalog of games sold as a subscription, may use a secure third-party purchase API for in-game purchases (section 10.8.6).

Non-game Windows apps may use their own payments, and the agreement exempts those purchases from the Store Fee. Games do not get that option.

Your own launcher or website: no store fee, all the work

Selling from your own launcher or website removes the store’s share entirely. The store’s work does not go away. Someone has to run card processing and local payment methods, handle refunds, fight chargebacks, screen for fraud, and collect and pay sales tax and VAT.

Tax alone is a real job. Under EU rules, VAT on electronic services sold to consumers is generally due in the member state where the customer lives, at that country’s rate. The EU’s One Stop Shop lets a seller register in one member state and file for all of them, but the rate still changes with every customer’s country.

You have two ways to carry that load. With a payment service provider, you are the seller: you register for tax, file returns, and hold the chargeback risk on your own merchant account. With a merchant of record, the provider is the legal seller and takes on tax and payment liability for a percentage of each sale. The merchant of record vs payment service provider guide compares the two, and the PC web store guide covers launcher and site setups.

Dates that shaped these terms

Before you pick a PC route

1. List where your PC revenue comes from today: Steam, other stores, your own site.
2. For Epic, estimate what each product earns through Epic’s payments in a calendar year, and check whether the Unreal Engine royalty applies to own-payment sales.
3. Ask Epic in writing for the Web Shop rate above $1 million before you plan around Web Shops.
4. Keep Microsoft Store builds on Microsoft’s billing, with no pointers to other ways to pay.
5. Before selling from your own site, decide who carries tax and chargebacks: you through a payment service provider, or a merchant of record.