https://www.kitguru.net/gaming/joao-silva/tim-sweeney-says-offering-games-for-free-can-help-increase-their-sales-on-other-platforms/
 
In a recent interview with GameSpot, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney claimed that the free game giveaways run on the Epic Games Store such as Sid Meier's Civilization VI and Grand Theft Auto V can lead to increased sales of the games on other platforms. Tim Sweeney believes that because many of the games given away may not have been considered by most players leading to increased sales on alternate platforms according to some developers.

Tim Sweeney said, "You're not going to go out and buy—If you're not into games like Satisfactory, you're not going to go out and spend money to buy Satisfactory. But if you get it for free you realize it's an awesome game. People have discovered a lot of great games that way."
 
I can totally agree with this statement by Tim Sweeney. 

That's a very fine line for Tim Sweeney to be promoting.... he's basically admitting that people are directly or indirectly playing the freebies on the EPIC store, then going to other platforms like steam and buying them there. Just think about that for a minute... 

I agree fully with the statement but I don't think that it's really the people who got the game on Epic who are going and buying it on another platform. It's simply because if someone I know tells me I should play a game that they are into I probably will check it out. My friends know me and they know when they recommend a game if it's something they feel would be fun to me.