AAA Games

Battle-tested on the world’s most demanding games

Powerful enough to keep up with expansive open-world gameplay. Reliable enough to be the foundation for more than half of next-gen titles currently in development. There’s a reason today’s biggest games are being built in UE5. We hope yours will be next.

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The latest news for game developers

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June 23, 2026

Unreal Engine 5.8 is now available

Build bigger, better, more differentiated worlds in less time; easily populate them with high-fidelity animated characters and custom vegetation; and light and render them at the speed and quality your audiences demand.

News

June 22, 2026

The road to Unreal Engine 6

We have started the road to UE6, where Unreal Engine and UEFN will come together into a single, unified engine. Read more about our vision, transition plans, and timeline.

News

Features for game development

Unreal Engine comes with everything you need to build and ship successful AAA games, including industry-leading graphics, procedural audio design, support for multiplayer and networked games, full source code access, and much more.

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Game-changing fidelity at massive scale

UE5 provides the tools you need to create truly immersive, expansive worlds. With Lumen dynamic GI, indirect lighting reacts to changes in direct lighting on the fly. Render massive amounts of geometric detail with Nanite and Virtual Shadow Maps. Easily manage and stream your levels with World Partition. And collaborate with team members on the same region of the same world with One File Per Actor.

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Nanite micropolygon geometry

Virtual Shadow Maps

Procedural Content Generation

World Partition

The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo

Built-in character and animation toolsets

UE5 puts powerful animation and character tools where you need them: in the editor. Create unique rigs with Control Rig and build and modify skeletons with the Skeleton Editor. Use Sequencer to build, layer, and refine complex animations, and drive lifelike behaviors with Animation Blueprints and Motion Matching. You can even harness MetaHuman to generate and animate photorealistic characters in minutes.

Control Rig

Skeletal Mesh Animation System

Sequencer

MetaHuman

Game Animation Sample

Full C++ source, Blueprint visual scripting, and more

With UE5 you’ve got full access to the source code, a robust C++ API, and the intuitive Blueprint visual scripting system so you can differentiate your games and optimize your workflows. Plus, there’s built-in support for setting up networked multiplayer games.

Source code

Programming with C++

Blueprint visual scripting

Networking and multiplayer

AAA success stories

Borderlands 4

Built with UE5, Borderlands 4 delivers ambitious scale

Gearbox Software

MONGIL: STAR DIVE

Hear from CEO Ken Kim on how his team built the upcoming cross-platform game in UE5

Netmarble

VALORANT

Hear from Riot’s Marcus Reid about upgrading from UE4 to UE5

Riot Games

Marvel Rivals

UE5 powers Marvel Rivals to create a new multiverse of Marvel Heroes

NetEase Games

Let’s get started.

New to game development or just new to Unreal Engine? We’ve got a collection of learning materials, tutorials, samples, and guides to help you get up and running fast.

Tutorials

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Get Started with Unreal Engine

This five-part video series takes you on a whistlestop tour of the essentials, from installing UE5 and navigating the interface to packaging your project.

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine

Follow along with this course to learn the high-level basics of UE5 by making a very simple 3D Plaformer game from start to finish.

Your First Game in Unreal Engine

In this course, you’ll add several new game systems to the “First Hour” project, including timers, speed boosts, and dynamic obstacles.

Documentation

Whether you’re an artist, a designer, or a programmer, our comprehensive documentation has you covered.

Unreal Engine for New Users

Understanding the Basics

Working with Content

Programming with C++

Setting Up Your Production Pipeline

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Sample projects

Samples are pre-built projects designed to help you quickly learn and get working in Unreal Engine without needing to start from scratch. Download, play, deconstruct, and make them your own.

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Stack O Bot

The perfect starting point for new developers, the Stack O Bot sample game is designed to be a great learning resource.

Content Examples

This project’s stations showcase specific UE5 features, including animation, audio, Blueprints, Landscapes, materials, physics, and more.

Lyra Sample Game

This sample gameplay project demonstrates both cross-platform scalability and cross-play multiplayer using Epic Online Services.

Game Animation Sample Project

With over 500 game-ready animations, this project can help you learn best practices or kickstart your own creations.

Looking for UEFN learning content?

If you’re interesting in getting started with Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), you can find tons of great resources on our dedicated page.

View now

Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

Under $1 million USD in revenue?

Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

Download now View FAQ Licensing Terms

Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

With Unreal Engine, you don’t just get powerful creative tools. You also have access to an entire ecosystem to publish, operate, and collect revenue from your game.

Self-publishing tools

Now open to all developers and publishers, start distributing PC games on the Epic Games Store with our self-service publishing tools.

Learn more

Epic Online Services

These free cross-platform services make it easier and faster for devs to successfully launch, operate, and scale high-quality games.

Learn more

Launching for console?

There’s no fee or cost related to using Unreal Engine on a console but you’ll need platform holder approval to access the necessary SDKs.

Get access

Notification of release

When the time comes to release your title, please fill in the release form and let us know a little about yourself and your game.

Submit details

Reporting royalties

When your game starts generating revenue, you’ll need to track gross revenue and pay a 5% royalty after $1 million USD.

Submit royalties

The Fab marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.

Browse now

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.