Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to witness the union of Fortnite and esports in holy matrimony. If there is anyone who feels that these two should not be together, speak now or forever hold your peace because Epic Games just dropped a BOMB on us! A ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR bomb.
Grab your gear, drop in and start training. Epic Games will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions.https://t.co/ZcBe9fZD0S
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 21, 2018
Yeah, Epic Game just casually announced that it will be putting $100,000,000 forward for prize pools in the first year of Fortnite competition. $100 million. In the first year. That is absolutely ridiculous. But it makes complete sense.
WIth the game reportedly making $223 million in the month of March alone, it's clear that they've got the capital to make this happen. It seems as though they were simply biding their time, makings sure that the game itself was in a good spot before taking this leap into esports. Which was incredibly smart given the relative failure, or lack of sustained success, of other titles that have dived into esport too quickly. Just imagine what this game will be once it's out of beta…. (You guys forgot it was still technically in early access, huh?)
This prize pool coupled with the ridiculous amount of interest in competitive Fortnite from fans -- views of YouTube personality KEEMSTAR's Friday Fortnite passed 600,000 between YouTube and Twitch -- means that Fortnite could very well be set to take the esports world by storm. Time will tell how successful this will be, but the sky is certainly the limit.
Epic Games certainly has faith, as in addition to the funding, they stated that they "plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game" once this gets underway. This is no small venture by Epic Games. They are all in on this thing and we will be right there to watch it all unfold.
