Where the UGC Dollars Flow: Mapping $9B Investments in Creator Economy

FEATURE BY GDEV 1
Where the UGC Dollars
Flow: Mapping $9B
Investments in Creator
Economy
# 13 FEATURE BY

FEATURE BY GDEV 2
~$9B DEPLOYED ACROSS ~80 UGC GAMING, MODDING COMPANIES & GAMES FROM 2020 TO 2025 YTD
LATE -STAGE
Series B+ and growth rounds
EARLY -STAGE
Pre -seed, Seed and Series A rounds
65
#OF DEALS
$0 .5B
DEAL VALUE
CORPORATE
Investments by strategic players or CVCs
I
II
III
22
# OF DEALS
$4.5B
DEAL VALUE
8
#OF DEALS
$3 .5 B
DEAL VALUE
METHODOLOGY
• Analysis covers UGC -focused
gaming platforms, modding
ecosystems, and standalone
games or IPs with significant
UGC features
• Received VC, CVC and/or
corporate investments or
completed M&A transactions
between 2020 and 2025 YTD
116
#OF DEALS
$8 .9B
DEAL VALUE
TOTAL DEAL ACTIVITY *
2020 –2025 YTD
From passion -project mods to breakout franchises, UGC has repeatedly served as the launchpad for billion -dollar IPs. Today’s sur ge in creator -led
platforms like Roblox and Fortnite is not a new phenomenon — it’s the industrialization of a long -running, community -driven forc e.
M&A
Mergers and acquisitions
IV
21
#OF DEALS
$0.4 B
DEAL VALUE
UGC GAMING PLATFORMS & GAMES
MODDING PLATFORMS
109
#OF DEALS
$2.0B
DEAL VALUE
Note: (*) incl. deals in Roblox & Fortnite
ex cl. Roblox & Fortnite deals

FEATURE BY GDEV 3
HISTORY OF UGC GAMING
From 1990s community mods and map editors to today’s industrialized creator platforms like Roblox and Fortnite, UGC has evolv ed into structured
ecosystems that spawn genre -defining hits and professional creator economies.
1993 -1995
•Doom allowed players to create and share custom levels and graphics (1993)
•ActiveWorlds launched a virtual world with user – created environments (1995)
2004 -2006
•Garry’s Mod provided an open physics sandbox (2004)
•Roblox launched with cloud -based game creation and publishing tools (2006)
•Arma 1 launched with open toolkit for missions and conversions (2006)
1999 -200 1
•Counter -Strike beta release as a Half – Life mod ( 1999)
•Valve acquired the Counter -Strike IP (2000)
•Operation Flashpoint (ARMA’s predecessor) launched with mission editor and scripting tools (2001)
1996 -1998
•Team Fortress released as a class – based team mod for Quake (1996)
•StarCraft included StarEdit, a map – building tool (1998)
2003
•Second Life launched user -built 3D world with virtual economy
•DotA custom map for Warcraft III was released
2011
•Steam Workshop launched with Team Fortress 2 enabling built -in mod sharing
•Minecraft Forge standardized mod loading and APIs for Minecraft
2023
Unreal Editor for Fortnite released, granting professional tools and revenue share to creators
2020 -2021
•Overwolf acquired CurseForge, adding a cross -game mod marketplace
•Roblox IPO listed on the NYSE with the market cap of $38.3B
2014 -2018
•Microsoft acquired Mojang, developer of Minecraft, for $2.5B
•Fortnite Creative mode allowed players to design and share private islands
2009
Arma 2 released; its mods DayZ and Battle Royale later evolved into DayZ (stand – alone) and PUBG

FEATURE BY GDEV 4
TOTAL HOURS OF ENGAGEMENT (B) CONCURRENT USERS ON MAJOR UGC PLATFORMS VS STEAM 1
Roblox users logged 73.5B hours in 2024 with CCUs exceeding 21 million, while Fortnite Creative has stabilized around 1.3 million CCUs,
demonstrating that demand for UGC -centric gameplay remains strong and central to player engagement.
0m
5m
10m
15m
20m
25m
30m
35m
Jan-20 Nov-20 Sep-21 Jul-22 May-23 Mar-24 Jan-25
Roblox CCU (m) Fortnite CCU (m)
Steam – All CCU (m) Steam – In-game CCU (m)
Note: (1) Data as of August 26, 2025; (2) Fortnite’s CCUs tracking starts in May’23 with new data access policy; (3) hours pl aye d in creator -made islands; (4) hours watched Sources: RoMonitor Stats (Roblox & Fortnite); SullyGnome (Twitch); Steam DB; companies’ reports; Statista
73,5
20,8
7,7
5,2
59,8
21,4
7,0
5,0
Roblox
Twitch
Epic Games Store
Fortnite
2023 2024
4
3
2
| In -Game
| All
Aug
-25

FEATURE BY GDEV 5
201 240
2023 2024
+19%
PAYOUTS TO CREATORS BY PLATFORM ($M) 1
UGC platforms have evolved from hobbyist communities to professionalized creator economies, with Roblox and Fortnite now payi ng ~$1.5B
together to developers while hit games increasingly emerge from coordinated studio teams rather than solo creators.
351 364
4%
+38 %
166 171
222
202 208
232
281 282
316
60 55
116 105
75 60
104 120
80
Q2’23 Q3’23 Q4’23 Q1’24 Q2’24 Q3’24 Q4’24 Q1’25 Q2’25
CREATOR EARNINGS BY QUARTER
803
1,110
Note: (1) Fortnite figures are based on Epic Games disclosures and InvestGame estimates; (2) Overwolf does not disclose quarterly creator payouts. Data presented is for 2023 & 2024 calendar years.Sources: Roblox, Epic Games, Creator Games
LTM CREATOR EARNINGS 2
LTM
Q2’24
LTM
Q2’25
LTM
Q2’24
LTM
Q2’25

FEATURE BY GDEV 6
NUMBER OF DEALS TOTAL CAPITAL DEPLOYED BY UGC ($M)
Funding followed a classic hype cycle: a 2020 -21 surge from Roblox’s IPO and metaverse hype, then a 2022 pullback with only majo r strategic
investments, like Sony/KIRKBI’s $2B (2022) and Disney’s $1.5B (2024) into Epic Games, reinforcing incumbents over backing new challengers.
6
12
14
15
12
6
5
12
1 1
2
1
–
2
3
–
2
–
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 YTD
Early-stage Late-stage Corporate
73 84 160 76 62 20
1,783
2,540
37
37
130
31
2,000 1,502
$1,856
$2,655
$2,197
$113
$1,694
$20
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 YTD
Early-stage Late-stage Corporate

FEATURE BY GDEV 7
NUMBER OF EARLY -STAGE DEALS EARLY -STAGE ROUNDS VALUE ($M)
Early -stage funding remained resilient with 12 -15 deals annually, as investors backed “next Roblox/Fortnite” platforms ($324M in 38 deals),
companies/games building within Roblox/Fortnite ecosystems ($81M in 17 deals), and modding/UGC infrastructure (5 deals each).
7
33 35 51 53
15
6
26
7
65
25
119
25
5
$73
$84
$160
$76
$62
$20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 YTD
Seed – UGC Platforms Seed – Modding
Series A – Modding Series A – UGC Platforms
5
11
12
15
11
6
1 1
2
–
1
–
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 YTD
UGC Modding

FEATURE BY GDEV 8
LARGEST EARLY -STAGE INVESTMENTS ROUNDS IN UGC
DATE TARGET VALUE TYPE LEAD INVESTORS CATEGORY
Dec -20 $50 m EARLY -STAGE
ROUNDS* UGC PLATFORM
Nov -22 $40m SERIES A + UGC PLATFORM
Nov -21 $26m SERIES A MODDING
Mar -22 $25m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Feb -22 $15m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Jun -21 $15m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Mar -22 $15m SERIES A UGC -CORED GAME
Sep -20 $15m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Sep -23 $15m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Jul -22 $14.6m SERIES A UGC PLATFORM
Note: (*) $50m were raised over 3 rounds in 2020

FEATURE BY GDEV 9
NOTABLE UGC PLATFORMS
Notes: (1) lifetime users; (2) active users in 2025; (3) MAU in 2024; (4) accounts created in 2024; (5) average monthly CCUs in Steam in 2025 YTD; (6) as of Nov’22
Platform
Launch Year 2016 2020 2018 2012 202 2 2014 2021
UGC Segment VR Web3 Mobile Web3 Cross -platform VR Mobile
Funds Raised
Since 2020 $265m $262m $150m $113m $90m $80m $52m
# of Users 100m 1 7m 2 20m 3 ~6m 4 – 58k 5 9m 6