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Mind the Coin Purse: How to Make Money Making Games in 2026
Store cuts, creator payouts, grants, funds and publishers, with the real numbers as of September 30, 2026.
Check your coin purse, adventurer. Making games is a craft, and it can also pay the rent.
Most people who earn a living from games mix several of the ways below, especially early on. Here's each one, with the numbers as we checked them on September 30, 2026.
This is a map, not financial or legal advice. Terms change, so check each program's own page before you sign anything.
What does a store keep?
- Steam: Valve keeps 30% of sales, 25% past $10 million in lifetime revenue and 20% past $50 million. Listing a game costs $100, which you get back once it earns $1,000.
- Epic Games Store: since June 1, 2025, you keep 100% of the first $1 million in net revenue per product each year, then 88%.
- itch.io: you choose the site's share yourself (it starts at 10%). It's the friendliest place to publish a first game.
What about Roblox and Fortnite?
They come with an audience already playing.
- Roblox: experiences earn Robux, and Developer Exchange cashes them out at $0.0038 per earned Robux, up 8.5% from September 5, 2025.
- Fortnite: islands earn engagement payouts for being played. Since January 9, 2026, creators also keep 100% of the V-Bucks value of items sold in their islands (about 74% of what players spend), through January 31, 2027. After that it drops to 50% (about 37%).
Can you sell tools instead of games?
Yes, and many developers do it between projects.
- Fab, Epic's marketplace, pays creators 88% of each sale.
- The Unity Asset Store and itch.io sell models, sounds, scripts and templates too.
What about free to play?
Most MMOs on our lists earn this way: cosmetics, battle passes, subscriptions or convenience items. It can work well, and it can go very wrong. Read Designing F2P players don't hate before you build a cash shop.
Who gives money away?
Grants don't need paying back. Funds do, usually from sales.
- Epic MegaGrants: for projects in Unreal Engine 5 or Fortnite's UEFN. In 2026 the windows ran January 12 to March 20 and June 29 to September 4.
- UK Games Fund Prototype Fund: up to £100,000 for small UK studios. Expressions of interest are paused and reopening soon.
- Creative Europe MEDIA: up to €200,000 for European studios with a released game. The 2026 deadline was February 11.
- Outersloth, from the makers of Among Us: usually $50,000 to $2 million, paid back from sales, and they take no ownership of your game. Submissions are open all year.
We keep every program, with its deadline and when we last checked it, on Funding and programs.
Do you need a publisher?
A publisher pays for development and marketing in exchange for a share of what the game earns. Read the contract slowly.
Raw Fury, for example, asks for a playable build, a pitch deck, a launch window, a budget estimate and a trailer or gameplay video. Have all five ready before you pitch anyone.
Can players fund it early?
- Crowdfunding: on Kickstarter, backers pledge toward a goal, and you're paid only if you reach it.
- Early access: sell the game while you finish it. Brighter Shores has been in Early Access on Steam since November 6, 2024, with its remaining features listed on its store page.
What does the engine cost?
- Unreal Engine: free until a game earns $1 million in lifetime gross revenue, then a 5% royalty. Sales on the Epic Games Store don't count toward it.
- Unity Personal: free for people and small studios with less than $200,000 in revenue and funding over the last 12 months.
- Godot: free and open source, with no fees at all.
