Fortnite Will Let Creators Sell In-Game Items Starting This December

Image Credit: Epic Games

Fortnite creators will soon be able to sell their own digital items directly inside the game.

Epic Games announced the feature on Thursday, confirming that from December onwards, creators will have access to new UEFN tools and Verse-based APIs to design and sell digital durable or consumable items.

The only restriction is that these sales must remain virtual (obviously); no physical items like t-shirts or merch can be sold through the system.

A Bigger Cut for Creators

Normally, developers will receive 50% of the V-Bucks value from their in-game sales. However, Epic is giving creators a major boost during the first year of the program. Between December 2025 and December 2026, creators will keep the full 100% V-Bucks value of their item sales.

Now, that doesn’t translate to the entire revenue. Epic explained that to calculate the actual payout, it looks at all customer spending on V-Bucks in real-world dollars, then subtracts platform fees, which range from 12% on the Epic Games Store to as high as 30% on consoles. With average platform fees around 26%, that means creators will take home about 74% of the actual revenue during the promotional year. Starting January 2027, that drops to about 37%.

Epic says the other half helps it cover "server hosting costs, safety and moderation, R&D, and other operating expenses." As the company noted, it has been "investing and operating the business at a loss" in recent years.

Engagement Payouts Formula Get a Revamp

Alongside item sales, Epic is tweaking how engagement payouts work. Starting November 1, 2025, creators who attract brand-new players or reengage lapsed ones will earn 75% of those players’ contributions to the engagement pool for the first six months. Epic will determine this using signals like direct links, in-game search, and first-day playtime.

Retention is also getting an overhaul. Instead of rewarding ecosystem-wide playtime, payouts will now focus on island-specific retention. According to Epic, this aligns better with the effort creators put into keeping players active. Importantly, only players who have made real-money purchases will count toward these metrics, to help cut down on fraudulent engagement.

Sponsored Row, Creator Communities, and More

Epic isn’t stopping at payouts. On November 24, 2025, Fortnite will add a Sponsored Row to its Discover page, where creators can bid for extra visibility. All revenue from this feature will initially flow back into the engagement pool until the end of 2026, before it shifts to a 50/50 split with Epic.

Creators will also gain access to new campaign tools through the Creator Portal starting November 17, and Fortnite Creator Communities will launch in the coming months to help teams connect with their audiences more directly.

Epic’s Long-Term Push

Since the launch of UEFN, players have spent over 11.2 billion hours across more than 260,000 creator-made islands, generating $722 million in payouts to date.

Compared to platforms like Roblox, which typically offer creators a smaller revenue share (25% of in-experience spend and 0% on sponsored in-experience ads), Epic is positioning Fortnite as a more rewarding place to build.

For players, this means we’re about to see even more unique items and experiences pop up in Fortnite. And for creators, the next year might be the most profitable time yet to experiment with building their own in-game economies.