Unity Engine runtime fee: Difference between revisions

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{{IncidentCargo

|Company=Unity

|StartDate=2023-09-12

|EndDate=

|Status=

|ProductLine=

|Product=Unity Engine

|ArticleType=

|Type=

|Description=Rent-seeking

}}

''Unity ~~Technologies know~~ for ~~their~~ Unity ~~game engine attempted to force~~ all ~~of its paying users~~ to adopt ~~their new business model that included a~~ per-download fee.''

On 12 September 2023, [[Unity]] implemented sweeping changes to the pricing model for its Unity Engine that would affect all developers using it, forcing them to either adopt Unity's per-download fee or de-list their games.

On 10 November 2025, Unity backtracked on the runtime fee and implemented a pricing system based on the revenue of the companies/individuals using the software.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-10 |title=Changes to Unity subscription plans and pricing |url=https://unity.com/products/pricing-updates}}</ref>

==Background==

Unity is a well known game engine used by ~~plethora~~ of both ~~big~~ and ~~small studios~~. Unity had multiple subscription tiers:

Unity is a well known game engine used by studios of all sizes, and very widely across the indie space due to its accessibility, capacity for both 2D and 3D development, and C# support. Prior to the runtime fee, Unity had multiple subscription tiers:

===Unity Personal===

Costs nothing and allows you to the Unity game engine to produce commercial works up until your revenue from the product created using the Unity game engine reaches ~~100~~,000$ at which point you're required to change license to one of the higher tiers.

Costs nothing and allows you to the Unity game engine to produce commercial works up until your revenue from the product created using the Unity game engine reaches $200,000 at which point you're required to change license to one of the higher tiers.

===Unity Pro===

Costs ~~[TBD]~~$ ~~yearly~~ per seat, and allows you to continue working on your projects ~~past the 100~~,000$ revenue ~~limit and gives additional features~~.

Costs $210 monthly per seat, and allows you to continue working on your projects if your business made over $200,000 in funding or annual revenue.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Plans & Pricing |url=https://unity.com/products}}</ref>

===Unity Enterprise===

~~[TBD]~~

Uses a custom pricing model that requires you to get a quote for. It is required for businesses making more than $25M in annual revenue.<ref name=":2" />

==Runtime fee (Defunct)==

On September 12th, 2023, Unity announced a "Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs," which fundamentally altered their monetization model. This runtime fee aimed to charge developers a small amount every time an end user installed their application. To qualify for the fee, games must have passed a minimum revenue threshold within the past 12 months and a minimum lifetime install count threshold. The following table (taken directly from the original announcement) lays out specific thresholds and install costs that the new model would impose on engine users.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first= |date=2023-09-12 |title=Unity plan pricing and packaging updates |url=https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912135629/https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |archive-date=2023-09-12 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Unity Blog}}</ref><table class="table-responsive" style="width:100%;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><tr style="background-color:#2196f3;color:#ffffff"><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="15%"></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%">Unity Personal and Unity Plus</th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="29%">Unity Pro</th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%">Unity Enterprise</th></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td colspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Unity Runtime Fee thresholds to be met</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Revenue Threshold (USD)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$200,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">Install Threshold</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">200,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Installs over the Install Threshold</td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Standard monthly rate</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1–100,000</td><td rowspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.20 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.15 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.125 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">100,001–500,000</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.075 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.06 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">500,001–1,000,000</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.03 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,001+</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Installs over the Install Threshold</td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff">Emerging market monthly rate</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1+</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.005 per install</td></tr></table>

These fees were to be applied retroactively to any product using the unity runtime, including those released prior to this change.<ref name=":1">Needs citation

</ref>

~~==''Runtime fee''==~~

This announcement also removed the popular unity plus plan, forcing developers to the more expensive Unity Pro plan if they wanted to remove the baked in unity splash screen.<ref name=":0" />

On the ~~[DATE] Unity announced~~ the ~~new pricing model which requires you to pay a fee starting at 15 cents per install of product developed with~~ Unity~~, this change was to be applied retroactively to any product released prior~~ to ~~this change, and going forward~~ the ~~developers would have to pay for future installations of their product~~.

To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.

To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.<ref name=":1" />

==Consumer impact==

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==Consumer response==

~~''Summary~~ and ~~key issues~~ of ~~prevailing sentiment from~~ the ~~consumers that can be documented via articles~~, ~~emails~~ to ~~support~~, ~~reviews and forum posts~~.''

The yearly GMTK Game jam released a series of statistics on engine usage within the jam, both in 2023<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2023-07-18 |title=game engines that people used to make 6835 game jam games |url=https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260321165148/https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> before the runtime fee announcement and in 2024<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2024-08-21 |title=game engines that people used to make 7,711 game jam games |url=https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2026-0322-0154-40/https://nitter.us.catsarch.com:443/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> afterwards. The 2023 results showed 59% of jam entries were made in the unity engine, while the next largest engine, Godot, (a free & open source competitor to unity), took a 19% share. The 2024 results see unity's share drop by 16% to an overall 43%, and Godot's more than double to 37%, Illustrating a significant exodus of talent from the unity platform correlating with the release of the runtime fee.

==References==

[[Category:Unity ~~engine~~]]

[[Category:Unity]]

[[Category:Software licensing]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{StubNotice}}
+{{IncidentCargo
+|Company=Unity
+|StartDate=2023-09-12
+|EndDate=
+|Status=
+|ProductLine=
+|Product=Unity Engine
+|ArticleType=
+|Type=
+|Description=Rent-seeking
+}}
-''Unity Technologies know for their Unity game engine attempted to force all of its paying users to adopt their new business model that included a per-download fee.''
+On 12 September 2023, [[Unity]] implemented sweeping changes to the pricing model for its Unity Engine that would affect all developers using it, forcing them to either adopt Unity's per-download fee or de-list their games.
+On 10 November 2025, Unity backtracked on the runtime fee and implemented a pricing system based on the revenue of the companies/individuals using the software.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2025-11-10 |title=Changes to Unity subscription plans and pricing |url=https://unity.com/products/pricing-updates}}</ref>
 ==Background==
-Unity is a well known game engine used by plethora of both big and small studios. Unity had multiple subscription tiers:
+Unity is a well known game engine used by studios of all sizes, and very widely across the indie space due to its accessibility, capacity for both 2D and 3D development, and C# support. Prior to the runtime fee, Unity had multiple subscription tiers:
 ===Unity Personal===
-Costs nothing and allows you to the Unity game engine to produce commercial works up until your revenue from the product created using the Unity game engine reaches 100,000$ at which point you're required to change license to one of the higher tiers.
+Costs nothing and allows you to the Unity game engine to produce commercial works up until your revenue from the product created using the Unity game engine reaches $200,000 at which point you're required to change license to one of the higher tiers.
 ===Unity Pro===
-Costs [TBD]$ yearly per seat, and allows you to continue working on your projects past the 100,000$ revenue limit and gives additional features.
+Costs $210 monthly per seat, and allows you to continue working on your projects if your business made over $200,000 in funding or annual revenue.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Plans & Pricing |url=https://unity.com/products}}</ref>
 ===Unity Enterprise===
-[TBD]
+Uses a custom pricing model that requires you to get a quote for. It is required for businesses making more than $25M in annual revenue.<ref name=":2" />
+==Runtime fee (Defunct)==
+On September 12th, 2023, Unity announced a "Runtime Fee that’s based on game installs," which fundamentally altered their monetization model. This runtime fee aimed to charge developers a small amount every time an end user installed their application. To qualify for the fee, games must have passed a minimum revenue threshold within the past 12 months and a minimum lifetime install count threshold. The following table (taken directly from the original announcement) lays out specific thresholds and install costs that the new model would impose on engine users.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |first= |date=2023-09-12 |title=Unity plan pricing and packaging updates |url=https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230912135629/https://blog.unity.com/news/plan-pricing-and-packaging-updates |archive-date=2023-09-12 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Unity Blog}}</ref><table class="table-responsive" style="width:100%;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><tr style="background-color:#2196f3;color:#ffffff"><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="15%"></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%"><strong>Unity Personal and Unity Plus</strong></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="29%"><strong>Unity Pro</strong></th><th style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000" width="28%"><strong>Unity Enterprise</strong></th></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td colspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Unity Runtime Fee thresholds to be met</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Revenue Threshold (USD)</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$200,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$1,000,000 (last 12mo)</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>Install&nbsp;Threshold</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">200,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">1,000,000 (life to date)</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Installs over the Install Threshold</strong></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Standard monthly rate</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1–100,000</strong></td><td rowspan="4" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.20 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.15 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.125 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>100,001–500,000</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.075 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.06 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>500,001–1,000,000</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.03 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1,000,001+</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"></tr><tr style="background-color:#000000;color:#ffffff"><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Installs over the Install Threshold</strong></td><td colspan="3" style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#ffffff"><strong>Emerging market monthly rate</strong></td></tr><tr><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000"><strong>1+</strong></td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.02 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.01 per install</td><td style="padding:10px;border:1px;border-style:solid;border-color:#000000">$0.005 per install</td></tr></table>
+These fees were to be applied retroactively to any product using the unity runtime, including those released prior to this change.<ref name=":1">Needs citation
+</ref>
-==''Runtime fee''==
+This announcement also removed the popular unity plus plan, forcing developers to the more expensive Unity Pro plan if they wanted to remove the baked in unity splash screen.<ref name=":0" />
-On the [DATE] Unity announced the new pricing model which requires you to pay a fee starting at 15 cents per install of product developed with Unity, this change was to be applied retroactively to any product released prior to this change, and going forward the developers would have to pay for future installations of their product.
-To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.
+To ensure adoption of this change Unity quietly changed their EULA to allow for such a change and never notified their users, going as far to private their EULA Github repository which was created as a result of a prior incident where Unity Technologies changed quietly their EULA quietly.<ref name=":1" />
 ==Consumer impact==
@@ Line 24: / Line 41: @@
 ==Consumer response==
-''Summary and key issues of prevailing sentiment from the consumers that can be documented via articles, emails to support, reviews and forum posts.''
+The yearly GMTK Game jam released a series of statistics on engine usage within the jam, both in 2023<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2023-07-18 |title=game engines that people used to make 6835 game jam games |url=https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260321165148/https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1681376508688883713 |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> before the runtime fee announcement and in 2024<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Mark |date=2024-08-21 |title=game engines that people used to make 7,711 game jam games |url=https://nitter.us.catsarch.com/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://megalodon.jp/2026-0322-0154-40/https://nitter.us.catsarch.com:443/gamemakerstk/status/1826184926393491689 |archive-date=21 Mar 2026 |access-date=2025-06-16 |website=Twitter}}</ref> afterwards. The 2023 results showed 59% of jam entries were made in the unity engine, while the next largest engine, Godot, (a free & open source competitor to unity), took a 19% share. The 2024 results see unity's share drop by 16% to an overall 43%, and Godot's more than double to 37%, Illustrating a significant exodus of talent from the unity platform correlating with the release of the runtime fee.
 ==References==
 {{reflist}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Unity game engine runtime fee}}
-[[Category:Unity engine]]
+[[Category:Unity]]
 [[Category:Software licensing]]