First $1 Million?

So I was reading up on forums around UE4, and suddenly came to shock when the phrase “royalties are waived to $1 million in gross revenue”

Now now, (I am making nothing off what im developing or wish to develop,) forgive me Im new to the adult world with larger phrases like “royalties are waived”, what does this actually mean?

Does this mean, (we) my in-house “business” has to hand over a million for a release?
Or is it like, a cut? (10-20% of revenue) ???
What if i cant make $1m ? what if I cant get profit off my project?

Im just a stupid 18y wishing to make games, without direction…
so far im pleased with my experience, and development, but i dont wanna halt it for another engine with better “pricing”… or whatever the pricing is…

Also, I found that Unity, uses like a %5 cut or something, and that the price you pay for there sub service, which makes a lot more sense to me…

(also, cant find any “contact” support, (e.g 1-1 support,) so this is a little embarrassing).

S: A first look at Unreal Engine 5 - Unreal Engine
S: first 1 million ue4 - Google Search

Id hate to leave this engine for other engines, (very tempted with unity, just price is scary)
Make me think otherwise while your at the response ^^;

royalties are waived

There used to be a much lower ceiling where you’d need to start paying royalties with much lower revenue. Now you pay nothing unless you make at least $1m, after which you pay 5% of whatever you make above that threshold.

What if i cant make $1m ? what if I
cant get profit off my project?

Then you pay nothing.

Unreal Engine End User License
Agreement for Publishing: This license
is free to use and incurs 5% royalties
when you monetize your game or other
interactive off-the-shelf product and
your lifetime gross revenues from that
product exceed $1,000,000 USD.


You are required to report revenues on
a quarterly basis after your product
generates more than $1,000,000 USD. In
any quarter in which your product
generates less than $10,000 USD, you
do not need to report revenues. If
your game or other interactive
off-the-shelf product is no longer
being sold, no revenue reports are
due.


If I release two games and they each
make $600K in revenue, what do I owe
Epic? Nothing.