Steam has dominated the digital PC gaming market for years, and so Epic Games Store has needed to use gimmicks to cut off a slice of the pie. One way that it's accomplished this is through Epic Games Store exclusives, with Epic spending a ton of cash to secure timed-exclusives for the platform. Another way is through giveaways, giving PC gamers free games in exchange for them downloading the Epic Games Store launcher.
Epic Games Store gives away free games every week throughout the year, but it takes things to the next level when December rolls around. To count down to the new year and to promote its holiday game sale, the Epic Games Store gives away new free games daily starting in mid-December. The Epic Games Store mystery games promotion has become a fan favorite tradition, with many happy to see it return for 2021.
The Epic Games Store capped off 2021 with another iteration of its mystery games promotion, giving away 15 free games from December 16 to December 30. Each free game was teased with Christmas wrapping paper that hinted at its identity before it was officially revealed. Epic Games Store users had 24 hours to claim each of the free games once they were added to the lineup, with the exception of the final free game, Tomb Raider Trilogy, which is free to claim until Thursday, June 6 at 10:00am CT.
Epic Games Store Mystery Games
- Tomb Raider Trilogy (December 30 - June 6)
- Salt and Sanctuary (December 29)
- Moving Out (December 28)
- Mages of Mystralia (December 27)
- Control (December 26)
- Prey (December 25)
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Enhanced Plus Edition (December 24)
- Vampyr (December 23)
- Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden (December 22)
- Second Extinction (December 21)
- Loop Hero (December 20)
- The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (December 19)
- Remnant: From the Ashes (December 18)
- Neon Abyss (December 17)
- Shenmue 3 (December 16)
The first Epic Games Store mystery game was Shenmue 3, setting the tone that the free mystery games would generally be higher profile games than Epic usually gives away with its weekly free games. That held true for the most part and even included one of 2021's highest-rated indie releases, Loop Hero, on December 20.
Epic Games saved the biggest games for last with the 2017 Prey reboot given away for free on December 25 and then Control released for free on December 26. And of course, Tomb Raider Trilogy was free to Epic Games Store users on December 30.
With Tomb Raider Trilogy, the Epic Games Store is moving away from its free mystery games promotion and starting to go back to its usual routine of giving away a new free game every week. Things are getting back to normal with the Epic Games Store free game for June 6 to June 13, which is Gods Will Fall.