What the giveaway is
The Epic Games Store gives away at least one paid PC game for free on a weekly cycle. It has run continuously since the store launched, and it is the single most reliable source of free games in PC gaming — not a sale, not a trial, but a full licence granted at no cost. The rotation has long landed on Thursdays, with the outgoing title replaced by the next one as the window closes.
The catalogue mixes large publisher back-catalogue titles with indies, and Epic occasionally runs larger stretches during seasonal events where the cadence increases for a period. What is on offer is announced on the store's free games page, usually with the following week's title shown in advance.
Do you keep it forever?
Yes. Claiming grants a permanent licence attached to your Epic account, exactly like a purchase. The game stays in your library after the giveaway ends and after the price returns, you can install and reinstall it whenever you like, and there is no expiry on the entitlement. Games that are later delisted from the store generally remain playable for accounts that already own them.
The licence is tied to the Epic account and to the Epic launcher — it is not transferable, it does not appear on Steam, and it cannot be gifted or traded onward. In practice you are building a library on a second storefront rather than adding to the one you already use.
How claiming actually works
Claiming takes about ten seconds and is the same flow as a purchase, minus the payment step.
- An Epic Games account, which is free to create.
- Opening the store's free games section, in the launcher or in a browser.
- Pressing Get, then completing the zero-value order at checkout.
- Two-factor authentication on the account, which Epic has required for some giveaways.
- Nothing else — installing is optional, and the licence is granted whether you install or not.
The catch is the calendar
The only real difficulty is remembering. A weekly rotation means about fifty chances a year to claim something for nothing, and every one you miss is gone permanently — Epic does not backfill, and a title that has rotated out returns to full price. People who claim diligently accumulate very large libraries; people who claim occasionally miss most of it.
There is also no penalty for claiming a game you have no intention of playing. The licence costs nothing, occupies no disk space until you install, and a game you ignore for two years is still there when you change your mind. The rational strategy is simply to claim everything.
Regional and account details
A small number of giveaways are restricted by region, usually because of local ratings or distribution rights, and the offer will simply not appear in the store for accounts in those countries. Age-rated titles can also require the account to have a date of birth set that satisfies the rating.
Epic added a two-factor authentication requirement for claiming some free titles, and it is worth enabling it in advance rather than discovering the requirement mid-claim on the last day of a window. It is a one-off setup and it protects the library you are building anyway.
How Boostr fits in
Boostr tracks the Epic weekly giveaway alongside Steam 100% off promotions, GOG giveaways and Amazon Prime Gaming, and surfaces them together with the time remaining on each window. For Steam, promotions can be claimed automatically to a linked account because they are ordinary zero-value store orders. Epic, GOG and Prime are tracked and surfaced rather than auto-claimed, so the claim itself is still a click you make — the value is in never finding out about it a day late.