Biggest videogame refund

The biggest video game refund is $245 million, which Fortnite maker Epic Games was ordered to pay to customers by the United States’ Federal Trade Commission on 19 December 2022. The order was for Epic’s alleged deployment of design tricks known as “dark patterns” to dupe millions of players into making unintentional purchases on the Fortnite item shop, according to the FTC. It is the FTC's largest refund amount in a gaming case, and its largest administrative order in history.

Separately, a federal court order filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC ordered Epic to pay a $275 million fine for allegedly violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) - the largest penalty ever obtained for violating an FTC rule.

As a result of the record-breaking settlements, Epic adopted new, stronger privacy settings for children and teens that ensure voice and text communications are turned off by default. "The old status quo for in-game commerce and privacy has changed, and many developer practices should be reconsidered," Epic said in response.

There have been a number of high-profile lawsuits and regulatory judgements against videogame publishers in recent years, with most relating to parental controls and the packaging of in-game purchases. The largest comparable videogame refund was the $51.2 million paid out by publisher CD Projekt Red over the poor state of its much-hyped open-world game Cyberpunk 2077.