By the end, you’ll know how to install and set up Epic Games on Linux and will be able to enjoy your favorite gaming titles on your desktop.
Can You Play Games Using Epic Games on Linux?
The most important question first: can you really play Epic Games titles using the launcher on Linux? Yes and no. Since Epic Games hasn’t released an official client for Linux yet, you won’t be able to play games after installing the official Epic Games client on your desktop.
Still, there’s a workaround that you can use to access and play Epic Games. And that’s using Heroic Games Launcher. Based on a command-line Epic Games client named Legendary, Heroic Games makes it easy for gamers to download and play Epic Games titles on their Linux desktop using compatibility layers like Wine and Proton.
Install the Official Epic Games Client on Linux
A word of warning: you won’t be able to play games using the official Epic Games client. But if for some reason—perhaps for testing purposes—you want to download the client on your system, you can do so using Lutris, an open-source game manager that can run Windows apps on Linux.
To install Lutris on your system, run the following commands, depending on the Linux distro you’re using:
On Ubuntu and Debian:
On Arch Linux:
On Fedora/CentOS/RHEL:
If your distribution supports Flatpak, you can also download Lutris from Flathub by issuing the following command:
If you haven’t installed Flatpak yet, check out our detailed guide on how to install and use Flatpak on Linux.
Once installed, launch Lutris by searching for it in the applications menu or by simply typing lutris in the terminal.
When the app opens, click on the three-dot menu icon and select Add games from the dropdown list. Then, click Search the Lutris website for installers and enter “Epic Games” in the search field.
When the results pop up, click the Epic Games Store option and hit Install. When prompted, check off the boxes next to Create desktop shortcut and Create application menu shortcut and proceed by clicking Install.
If your system doesn’t have Wine installed, Lutris will automatically start downloading the corresponding package for you. It’ll ask you to review the files before downloading them to your PC. If everything looks fine, hit Install and Continue to start the installation.
Once the Wine configuration is complete and Lutris has finished installing the necessary dependencies, you can click Launch to start the Epic Games Launcher.
You’ll now be able to log in and access your Epic Games library as you’d normally do on Windows.
Install Heroic Games Launcher on Linux
Heroic Games Launcher isn’t currently available in the official distro repositories. Therefore, you’ll have to download the package corresponding to the distribution you’re running from the project’s GitHub Releases page.
Download: Heroic Games Launcher
On Ubuntu and Debian
If you’re running Ubuntu or any other Debian-based distro, download the Heroic DEB package and navigate to the Downloads directory using the cd command:
Then, install the package using dpkg by typing:
Once installed, you can launch Heroic by searching for it in the applications menu.
On Arch Linux
Arch users can download the launcher from the AUR using Yay:
For the above command to work, make sure you’ve Yay installed on your system.
On Fedora, CentOS, and RHEL
Users running RPM-based Linux distributions first need to download the Heroic RPM package from its GitHub Releases page. Then, navigate to the directory where you’ve saved the package and enter:
Install the Heroic Game Launcher AppImage
If you don’t want to install the client on your system, you can instead download the AppImage file available on the Releases page.
To launch it, you need to grant execute privileges to the file by entering:
Then, simply double-click the file to launch the client.
Playing Epic Games Titles on Linux
Once you’ve installed Heroic Games Launcher on your system, launch it from the applications menu and click on the Epic Games Log In option on the welcome screen. You’ll get an option to log in to your Epic Games account. You can either click on Sign in with Epic Games to enter your credentials manually or select other options to log in using a secondary account like Google or Facebook.
When logged in, switch to the Library tab from the left sidebar. Heroic will now list all the games that you’ve added to your Epic Games library. To install a game, select it from the list and click Install.
Heroic will ask you to select an installation path, Wine prefix, and the version of Wine you want to use to run the game. If you’re not sure about the options, consider proceeding with the default settings by clicking Install.
Heroic will now start downloading the game files and store them at the specified location. Once all the files are downloaded and the game is installed, hit Play Now to launch it. On the first launch, you might come across the Wine configuration window. Let it configure the Wine prefix and continue with the default options if prompted.
If you don’t want to use Wine to run the game, you can click Wine Manager from the left sidebar and install alternative versions of Wine, including Proton GE and Lutris. Then, change the Wine version for a game by clicking the Settings option on its store page.
Gaming Is Better on Linux With Wine and Lutris!
Epic Games is easier to install if you know the right sources for downloading Linux software. Apart from Epic Games, you can also download Steam to kick back and enjoy your favorite games on your Linux PC.
Open-source projects like Wine, Proton, and Lutris have made it possible for gamers to consider Linux as a choice for a gaming operating system.
