As a member of the Fortnite Developer Program you can publish and promote your islands, review your islands’ metrics, and get paid. Below are curated lists of the most frequently asked questions, sorted into categories.
General
What is the Fortnite Developer Program?
The Fortnite Developer Program is specifically for creators and developers who make islands in Fortnite and enables participants to publish islands and receive engagement payouts.
How can I request additional features or provide feedback?
If you'd like to submit additional feedback or propose features, please don't hesitate to do so via the creator feedback forum.
What happens to my payout allocation if I transfer island ownership?
Engagement payouts are allocated on a daily basis, based on UTC time. If ownership of an island is transferred, the payout for the day of transfer will be allocated to the owner of the island with the most active audience minutes (i.e. minutes across all the players playing their island) on the day of transfer.
Eligibility
Who is eligible?
Participants can either be individual developers or legal entities such as companies. The requirements to join the engagement payouts program are:
The creator's Epic account:
Must be at least 30 days old before applying; and at least 7 of the last 30 days must have included time editing in Fortnite Creative, Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) and/or Unreal Engine
OR
Spent and redeemed $73 (based on USD prices) in the last 90 days on Fortnite in-game products. Gift cards and V-bucks gift card redemptions do not apply to this spending threshold. Note that it may take up to 24h for spending and redemption to be reflected.
The creator is capable of accepting the Engagement Program Payout Terms, either on behalf of themself, or the legal entity that they represent.
The creator or the legal entity’s representative must be a legal adult. Abide by the developer content guidelines.
Able to receive engagement payouts using Epic’s payment platform(s), currently through Hyperwallet.
All creators who are legal adults and were enrolled in the Support-A-Creator program as of March 22, 2023, are automatically eligible to enroll in the engagement payouts program.
Who’s not eligible to participate?
The new program is not open to individuals or entities who do not meet the eligibility requirements listed above. Players or creators with a current ban on their Epic account will also be rejected.
You are also not eligible to participate if the program is restricted or prohibited by law where you live, or we cannot issue a payout award to you because of legal or other considerations. Epic uses a third-party payout provider to make payout award payments to program participants in these countries and regions.
As circumstances allow, additional regions and languages will be added.
I got a Support-A-Creator code when I signed up for the program. How do I use it?
Island creators and Support-A-Creator participants all receive a Creator Code. This is your brand presence in the Fortnite ecosystem and will identify you as the creator of your published experiences that appear in-game via Discover and on Fortnite.com. You also have a dedicated web presence that showcases your creations at Fortnite.com/@.
You don’t need to do anything with your Creator Code to participate in the engagement payout program. If you are also enrolled in the Support-A-Creator program, your Creator Code will double as your SAC code.
Payout
What are engagement payouts?
Engagement payouts proportionally distribute 40% of the net revenue from Fortnite’s Item Shop and most real-money purchases each month among eligible island publishers, including Epic, based on player activity in Fortnite.
How are my engagement payouts calculated?
Engagement payouts will reward creation of islands that players enjoy. During this early access launch of engagement payouts, payouts are based on engagement metrics that contribute to the health of the overall Fortnite ecosystem.
You can find details of the current engagement metrics on our Introducing Creator Economy 2.0 blog post here. Over time we expect the tracking metrics will change based on creator and player feedback.
Where can I see my engagement payouts?
You can see your published islands’ payout data on your payouts dashboard, which is accessed through the Creator Portal. Engagement payouts are calculated monthly, and will be posted thirty days after the close of the monthly period.
In the future we’ll add more information, visualizations and tools to provide better insights into your content’s performance.
When do developers receive their engagement payouts?
In order to receive engagement payouts, you must complete the required Tax Interview and set up a Hyperwallet account. You cannot receive payments from engagement payout without completing this step. Hyperwallet setup is part of the enrollment process for both Support-A-Creator and the new program. Existing SAC program members with publishing privileges should already have Hyperwallet set up.
Engagement payouts and SAC payouts are paid out on a monthly basis, so once you’ve been verified as an active creator and reached the $100 USD threshold, your payout will be sent to Hyperwallet for processing. Payouts are sent by Epic to Hyperwallet for disbursement to you 30 days after the end of the month in which they were earned. For example, if you earned $100 in March, your payout through Hyperwallet would be scheduled for April 30. If you earned $105 in April, your reward payment would be scheduled for May 30.
Just like the SAC program, no engagement payouts are credited to you until you accumulate an engagement payout of $100 USD or more within a 12-month consecutive period. However, if you’re enrolled in both Support-A-Creator and engagement payouts, the $100 USD minimum threshold now includes your payments from both programs.
If you don’t meet the combined $100 USD threshold within a period of 12 consecutive months, your balance will reset to zero and a new 12-month period will begin. For example, if you earned $90 total for a given 12-month period, at the beginning of the 13th month your balance will reset to zero and you would not receive the $90. If you were to make $105 in the 13th month, your next payout through Hyperwallet would be for $105, not for $195.
What is Fortnite’s net revenue? How is the 40% calculated?
All real-money Fortnite purchases like V-Bucks Packs, retail V-Bucks gift cards, real money transactions like Starter Packs or Quest Packs, Fortnite Crew subscriptions, or other real-money offers contribute to Fortnite's gross revenue.
When Fortnite offers are sold by third parties, Fortnite's net revenue is the funds received by Epic after Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, Google, and other sellers of Fortnite offers deduct third-party platform payment processing markups and fees. Other direct costs of goods sold, such as gift card manufacturing costs, are also deducted.
When Epic processes payments directly, such as the Epic Games Store on Windows and certain mobile devices, Fortnite's net revenue is the funds received by Epic after third-party credit-card, PayPal, and similar payment processing fees are deducted by payment service providers.
Once the month’s net revenue has been determined, 40% is sent to eligible island publishers, and the remaining 60% funds Fortnite ecosystem development by Epic.
Fortnite ecosystem costs include the creation of Fortnite’s codebase via software authorship, maintenance, service development and content design; all Fortnite brand game art, Item Shop cosmetic content, third-party IP licensing fees and merchandising; IT, hosting, and liveops server infrastructure/staffing; player acquisition, marketing, community management, and distribution; customer support and content moderation; Support-A-Creator affiliate payments.
In addition to 40% of eligible net revenue, 50% of sponsorship revenue generated by Sponsored Row campaigns will be added to the engagement payout pool, boosting the pool size for all developers. From the launch of In-Island Transactions, developers will earn 100% until January 31, 2027.
What happens to my payout allocation if I transfer island ownership?
Engagement payouts are allocated daily in UTC. If ownership of an island is transferred, the payout for that day will be allocated to the island owner with the most active audience minutes (i.e., minutes across all players playing the island) on that day.
Tax
What are my tax obligations?
Epic can not provide tax advice. For US-based creators, please review the 1099-NEC instructions if you have any questions. Please note that generally, amounts paid to individuals that are reportable in box 1 are subject to self-employment tax.
For non-US-based creators, you may have tax obligations on your Epic earnings in your local country. Please consult your tax or financial advisor.
Why do I need to provide tax information?
Epic is required to collect taxpayer information to fulfill tax calculations and reporting obligations in the United States. We are required to collect taxpayer information for all developers to determine who is a US resident and who is not. We collect your taxpayer information through a tax interview process conducted by our 3rd-party partner, Tax Identity. If you have questions about the tax interview process, you may contact [email protected].
What information will be reported to the IRS?
As required by law, Epic will report earnings to the IRS on a 1099-NEC (and related state forms) to all US-based creators who are paid $600 or more (in aggregate) during the tax year. If your tax classification is a C or S Corporation (including LLC classified as a C or S Corporation) as indicated in your tax interview, you may be exempt from receiving a Form 1099-NEC document.
Epic does not have any reporting obligations for non-US-based creators at this time. Please note that Epic is required to abide by all tax laws, which may change from time to time.