The Epic Games Store has kept up a rotating list of limited-time, free game giveaways since it first showed up, a deal that Epic’s Tim Sweeney tells GameSpot has brought “tens of millions of new users into the Epic Games ecosystem.”

While those free game promos obviously benefit Epic itself, Sweeney also makes the argument that the developers that participate see sales on Steam and consoles as well thanks to that Epic Games Store-driven visibility bump.

Specifically, he says that “most” developers see those increased sales, but doesn’t share specific numbers on either the increases or the number of game developers seeing that benefit in the full chat with GameSpot, found here.  From Sweeney’s take, those free giveaways increase public awareness of a participating game, series or genre, leading to those platform-agnostic benefits.

"You're not going to go out and buy if you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory but if you get it for free you realize it's an awesome game," Sweeney tells GameSpot. "People have discovered a lot of great games that way."