Free GTA V Game Offer Crashes the Epic Games Store Website

Grand Theft Auto V game cover art (Photo Source: Rockstar Games)

Epic Games Store, a digital video game marketplace, on May 14, added the highly popular game Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) for free. Shortly after the game went free online, a surge in users led to heavy traffic leading to a slowdown and error messages on the Epic Store website and the Launcher app. Epic acknowledged the issues and said that it is working on fixing them. 

According to the most recent tweet from the Epic Games Store's official account, most users should be able to access the Epic Games Store and Launcher. Additionally, a post by Reddit stated that the next set of free games coming to the Epic Store may have already leaked.

The Epic Games Store often offers free games in the form of 'Mystery Games' that users can download and keep forever. This time, it held Grand Theft Auto V as a free game until May 21, and naturally, a large number of people reached the online store website and the launcher app to get the game. 

This caused heavy traffic on Epic's servers, causing slowdowns, errors, and Epic Games Launcher crashes. Due to the popularity of GTA V, even though it is 7 years old, but flocks of users still want to download the game, no surprise. GTA V is also available for free in Pakistan and you have until 21 May to download the game and keep it forever.

In a tweet soon after users reported the issues, Epic acknowledged the problems and said it was working on a fix. This was followed by another tweet stating that some users were still facing some issues. 

Finally, as of the morning of May 15, the company shared that it had "deployed updates to provide solutions for these issues" and that most users should be able to access Epic Games Store's website and launcher. “If we are facing further problems then we will continue to monitor traffic and provide updates. Thank you for your continued patience! ", Added to the tweet.

We understand that many users are unable to access the Epic Games Store at this time. We appreciate your patience as we continue to work towards a resolution to mitigate traffic.

— Epic Games Store (@EpicGames) May 14, 2020