Epic Games Has Paid Out Over $1 Billion to Indie Creators Through Unreal Editor for Fortnite

During the Unreal Fest in Chicago, Hannah Lowry, Games Director of Fortnite Developer Relations, announced that they have paid over $1 billion to indie creators and developers with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.

UEFN is a version of Unreal Engine, released in 2023, that allows you to create and edit user-generated content within Fortnite. All of these creations get uploaded to the game as Islands, which can be inhabited by players.

"As of January, we've introduced more ways to monetize, opening up new genres and helping developers with smaller, engaged communities," said Lowry.

According to Lowry, in May 2026, 47 percent of all gameplay time was inside creator-built islands, and even though the battle royale mode still is the most popular, players are engaging more in other games inside Fortnite.

This week, we also talked about Epic's plans to unify Unreal Engine and UEFN into a single platform in UE6. We have also talked about some of the assets, templates, and gameplay systems you can find in UEFN, like the ones from Star Wars.

UEFN is a tool that can be very helpful to indie creators who don't have a big community but want to share what they can do with others.

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