Epic Games is set to enhance monetization opportunities for Fortnite creators by allowing them to sell in-game items directly from custom islands starting in December 2025. This move comes amid the surging popularity of Fortnite’s Creative Mode, which has transformed the game into a burgeoning metaverse-like platform, though it has sparked debate among players about the dilution of its core Battle Royale experience.
Fortnite’s Creative Mode, introduced in 2018, empowers players to design and share their own maps and game modes. The feature has seen explosive growth, with players logging more than 11.2 billion hours across 260,000 creator-made islands. In the year leading up to the latest announcements, Epic disbursed $325 million to creators, including seven individuals who each earned over $10 million. Cumulatively, payouts to creators have reached $722 million, driven by engagement-based rewards tied to item shop sales.
The upcoming update will enable developers to integrate sales of in-game items—purchased with V-Bucks—directly within their islands. For the first year, creators will retain 100% of the V-Bucks value from these transactions, a significant boost from the standard 50% split. Epic calculates the V-Bucks-to-USD conversion monthly by dividing total real-money spending (after platform and store fees) by V-Bucks circulated, meaning creators typically capture about 37% of retail spending under the usual model. By comparison, rival platform Roblox offers creators just 25%.
To further support creators, Epic plans to introduce a Sponsored Row on Fortnite’s Discover page. This advertising feature will allow creators to bid for prominent placement, increasing visibility and potentially driving more sales and engagement. Additionally, the company announced Fortnite Creator Communities, a new toolset for web and in-game updates. Creators can post text and images to share news, gather player feedback, and build communities, similar to features on platforms like Steam.
These developments highlight the creative ecosystem’s vitality, exemplified by the fan-made game Steal A Brainrot. The Fortnite version of this Roblox-originated meme game achieved 542,000 concurrent players, surpassing the peak of approximately 100,000 for official Battle Royale maps during busy weekends. Across both platforms, it attracted 24 million players in a single day, with Roblox accounting for 23.4 million. Such successes underscore how user-generated content is drawing massive audiences, often outpacing Epic’s core offerings.
However, the rise of Creative Mode has ignited concerns within the Fortnite community. On Reddit, players have voiced frustrations over the prominence of “AI slop” and copy-paste maps, arguing that they overshadow genuine efforts and erode the game’s foundational Battle Royale appeal. One user lamented, “They are promoting AI slop, copy and paste creative maps more than their own BR season. This is going to prove to be extremely unhealthy for the game in general I believe, and with the already low player counts this season Epic needs to do something to steer back to the basics, this metaverse stuff has RUINED Fortnite.”
Another commenter noted, “Stuff like this cluttering the overview makes me disinterested in random creative maps. Those who put genuine effort into their maps often get hardly any attention.” While some appreciate the casual gameplay and high XP rewards that attract crowds to these maps, others fear the shift is turning Fortnite into a “corporate shell” of its former self, potentially jeopardizing its future.
