Fortnite paid creators $352M last year. That is the template GTA is about to copy.
Epic has now paid out more than $900M lifetime to third-party Fortnite developers, with $352M flowing in 2024 alone. That number is the proof-of-concept for what a Rockstar-sanctioned creator economy looks like at scale.
Epic Games disclosed in early 2025 that it paid $352M to Fortnite creators in 2024 — an 11% year-over-year increase — and that cumulative payouts to third-party Fortnite developers have now crossed $900M. Roughly 13,000 creators earned more than $100, and seven cleared $10M individually. This is not a pilot program. It is a working royalty market for user-generated experiences and the cosmetic economy that wraps around them.
The structural lesson for the GTA universe is direct. Once a sandbox platform formalizes its creator pipeline — UEFN on Fortnite's side, Cfx.re on Rockstar's — the money that was already being spent inside the world starts flowing back to the people building it. The platform takes its cut, the studio gets a deeper catalog at zero internal headcount, and the creators get paid like authors instead of like contractors.
Why this matters for brand and design partners
Fortnite's payout curve is steep — most creators earn modestly, a small cohort earns enormously. That is the same shape every healthy catalog economy has, from Spotify to the App Store, and it is exactly the shape we expect inside the GTA marketplace. The brands and designers who are in catalog early, with quality and breadth, end up in the long tail that compounds.
IRL Meshworks exists so a brand does not need to staff a UEFN-equivalent team internally to participate. We are the partner that gets you into the catalog with the licensing, the meshes, and the reporting in place from day one.
Plant a flag in catalog
IRL Meshworks turns real-world products into game-ready meshes for the GTA and FiveM marketplaces. No internal team to build. No six-figure boutique studio. A low-risk first wave, in catalog before the platform turns on.