As part of its Unreal Engine 5 preview, Epic Games announced changes to its licensing policy. Now creators will only have to pay royalties to Epic once their games have generated over $1 million in revenue. This applies retrospectively to all games released after January 1st, 2020.
If the product is monetized, but its revenue does not reach $1 million, the engine license remains free for the team. As for the games earning over $1 million, for them the situation has not changed. They will still have to pay 5% of their games’ revenues.
If the team is not going to sell their products, like in case of contracted work, they can use the engine for free. The publisher will have to pay all the deductions, if it earns more than a million dollars.