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Remember last week, when I said that I’m not big on video games? Well, I wouldn’t claim that I was lying, as that statement was true at the time. But recent history might indicate otherwise.
Because believe it or not, I’m back at it again this week, bringing you yet another gaming-related brand spotlight. This is now officially a gaming newsletter. Thus, it would follow that I am officially a gamer.
Granted, I’m being a little facetious (in case you couldn’t tell). I’ve written about more beauty brands than you can shake a stick at—why you’re shaking sticks at beauty brands, I’ll never know—but that doesn’t mean I should be trusted to apply your makeup. Still, as I said last week and will seemingly continue saying for quite some time, gaming is here to stay. The industry is merging with, and shaping in turn, countless aspects of pop culture, with creators facilitating much of that crossover. To not cover this story would be a disservice to one of the creator economy’s biggest stories of the moment. And the last thing I want to be is a disservice.
So I am asking you to once again plug in, get comfortable, crack your knuckles, and boot up another HBBIP, because it’s time for…
Roblox last week, Epic Games this week. We’re covering all the biggest, brightest names in the industry. Next intention Nintendo?
Founded in 1991 as Potomac Computer Systems, Epic Games has come a long way. With a peak of 78 million monthly active users in December 2025 and a multi-billion dollar equity valuation, the brand is both a financial and cultural juggernaut. Whether you know Epic Games or not, you’ve likely heard of some of the biggest names in gaming (and elsewhere) that they’ve produced, including Fortnite, Gears of War, and Infinity Blade.
The brand’s industry bonafides are unquestionable. But how much of its growth has come from creators? And what are those creators saying?
Let’s deep dive into the data and find out.
First, let’s see how Epic Games’ creator program has evolved over the last six years.
Epic Games Creator Count, 2020 - 2025
Starting at 1.1k creators in 2020, Epic Games shot up to 6k creators in 2025, a 5x increase. As you can see, this growth took a while to warm up: the brand’s creator count barely moved from 2020 to 2021, then increased steadily through 2024. But as is the case for many HBBIP spotlight brands, 2025 brought improvement in a big way, with Epic Games’ creator count more than doubling from 2.8k to 6k.
Epic Games Post Count, 2020 - 2025
Post count grew even more quickly than creator count, rising 9x from 7.6k pieces of content in 2020 to 67.9k in 2025. This expanded creator community also posted more frequently: after averaging about 6.7 posts each in 2020, creators contributed 11.3 posts each in 2025. Like creator count, posts saw their biggest single-year jump in 2025, nearly tripling versus 2024.
Epic Games EMV, 2020 - 2025
Epic Games’ Earned Media Value (EMV), which reflects virality and buzz across social media conversations, rose from $87.5M in 2020 to $302.9M in 2025, a 3x improvement. After a slight dip to $86M in 2021, EMV climbed every year thereafter, enjoying the same boost in 2025 as every other metric, when it nearly doubled from $155.7M to $302.9M.
Epic Games Impressions, 2020 - 2025
Impressions followed an even more pronounced version of the pattern exemplified by EMV, growing 4x from 1.1B in 2020 to 4.4B in 2025. Impressions recorded a sharper dip to 950M in 2021, recovered over the next two years, and then held nearly flat from 2023 (1.8B) to 2024 (1.9B) before doubling in 2025.
Epic Games Engagements, 2020 - 2025
In comparison, engagements grew more gradually, rising from 53.2M in 2020 to 124.3M in 2025, a 2x increase. Again we saw the same basic shape as the other metrics: a 2021 dip to 48.5M, then steady gains, and a 2025 jump of about 64% over 2024.
So where is all this activity happening? Where are people posting about Epic Games?
First, let’s take a look at Epic Games’ 2025 impressions by channel. Faithful readers will recall, from the long-ago hazy wilderness of last week, that Roblox’s breakdown skewed heavily toward YouTube. How so here?
Epic Games' Share of Impressions by Platform, October 2025 - September 2026
Well, it’s not as pronounced, but YouTube is still the clear frontrunner, garnering 78.5% of Epic Games’ impressions from October 2025 to September 2026. Instagram is a distant second at 12.9%, followed by TikTok at 7.5% and Facebook at 1.2%.
Epic Games' Share of Engagements by Platform, October 2025 - September 2026
YouTube leads engagements too, at 64.6%, but the split is noticeably more even. Instagram’s share jumps to 20.9% and TikTok’s to 13.1%, both well above their shares of impressions, while Facebook nets a nearly identical 1.4%. Thus, the picture is more heterogeneous than what we saw with Roblox: for Epic Games, YouTube brings the reach, while Instagram and TikTok punch above their weight in interaction.
And who, exactly, are the creators posting about Epic Games across all these different platforms?
First, it’s important to understand that much like Roblox, Epic Games is a portfolio publisher, not a single game, and the brand’s audience reflects that diversity. From October 2025 to September 2026, roughly 13.3% of Epic Games’ community EMV ($82.7M) could be traced to Fortnite-specific creators, with 9.6% ($59.4M) stemming from Rocket League, and 5.0% ($30.8M) from Poppy Playtime: three very different audiences, creator types, and content formats coexisting under the same brand umbrella.
Fortnite is by far the largest single-game ecosystem, and the Epic Games offering that you’re most likely to have heard of before. (It’s the only one I knew, so you’re not alone in your ignorance.) This sector was anchored by Amjad ($14.4M EMV), a Middle Eastern Fortnite creator whose captions revolved entirely around “Code:AA2” custom maps and creator code redemptions, demonstrating the Fortnite Support-A-Creator program in action. On the other end of the spectrum, @t5g ($10.2M EMV) operates a “Top 5” YouTube list channel covering Fortnite meta and cultural moments: “Why Fortnite ROASTED Celebrities,” “There Are Secret Simpsons Mythics in Fortnite,” and other fun stuff like that. RealShiina ($4.6M EMV) covers Fortnite leaks and news, while @nosoymaiki ($2.0M EMV) posts Spanish-language Fortnite clips with tagged #epicpartner. Fortnite’s crossover slate drove much of this period’s community activity, with multiple creators posting about the game’s Simpsons collaboration, Spider-Man’s return, and Chapter 7 content.
Meanwhile, Rocket League was anchored by Lethamyr ($10.4M EMV), who posted viral physics-break YouTube Shorts affixed with his Support-A-Creator code. Rodrigo Quesada ($9.7M EMV), Reisshub ($6.3M EMV), Brani ($5.9M EMV), NOOB NOOB FRUIT ($4.0M EMV), and Jacy ($3.6M EMV) formed a large Rocket League cohort after not posting about the game during the preceding 12 months, demonstrating Rocket League’s increasing popularity. Finally, Animal Company emerged as the surprise new game in the cluster, with ChubbierSnail ($8.8M EMV) solidifying his status as a breakthrough creator by sharing horror-adjacent multiplayer content.
One of the most distinctive features of Epic Games’ creator community is that the Epic Games Store itself generates a vast layer of earned media via game reveals and launches. From October 2025 to September 2026, the store’s launch slate drove some of Epic Games’ most impactful content, proving that the brand has reach well beyond established hits like Fortnite or Rocket League.
Kingdom Hearts IV drove several of Epic Games’ top posts by EMV during the time period monitored, with captions announcing simultaneous launch across PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, and PC, as well as a Disney/Pixar’s Coco crossover reveal. Additionally, Final Fantasy VII Revelation—the eagerly awaited conclusion of the FF7 Remake trilogy—brought in an incredible rate of impressions, as did Subnautica 2 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered.
Across this steady slate of content, a clear pattern emerges: Epic Games Store exclusives and simultaneous-platform launches are generating announcement-moment EMV through the IP’s own official channels, which is further amplified by games media. IGN ($10.5M EMV) is the clearest games media partner, consistently covering launches, leaks, and rumors, while Marvel Rivals ($6.5M EMV) drove Season 6 content by hyping up Deadpool’s arrival. Finally, @reachthefinals ($2.9M EMV) activated Season 11 of The Finals with a structured trailer launch. This franchise announcement ecosystem, in which Epic Games serves as both publisher and platform, is a creator marketing opportunity with few analogues.
Poppy Playtime Chapter 5 generated the most geographically and format-diverse earned media cluster in Epic Games’ dataset—evidence of a franchise that’s transcended its gaming origins to become a genuine pop culture moment with an independent creator ecosystem. The period’s top individual post ($288k EMV via YouTube) belongs to the musician cg5beats, who released “CG5 - Wrong Side Out (from Poppy Playtime Chapter 5),” an official chapter theme song with 3D animation. That said, Reisshub ($6.3M EMV) is the most prolific Poppy Playtime creator in the data, combining Poppy Playtime animations and gamescom Witcher showcase clips, fusing multiple references across Epic Games’ wide portfolio. ChubbierSnail (Animal Company), OLDGG (Indonesian horror gaming Shorts, including Poppy Playtime jumpscare clips), and DRto2Tech (Spanish-language Poppy Playtime theories) round out a community that spans music production, 3D animation, and gameplay Shorts just as surely as it spans the globe.
Across these various vectors, Epic Games has stitched together a passion-driven, international creator community bolstered by the broader gaming universe and an active media ecosystem. With notable momentum in 2025, Epic Games will look to build upon that expansion, and continue crossing over into mainstream culture. And as we’ve seen across a range of brands and industries, creators will be at the forefront of those efforts, helping propel Epic Games to even more epic heights.
*All data, unless otherwise specified, stems from CreatorIQ's public-facing brand leaderboards. We will never share performance metrics from a customer's CreatorIQ profile, or any brand's private information.
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