Fortnite — The Biggest Esports Prize Pool Ever
Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, announced this week they will be providing $100 million to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions in the 2018–19 season. Even in the ever-growing world of esports, $100 million is a massive amount of money. In 2017, the biggest esport, Dota 2, awarded $38 million and the top 10 competitive games combined awarded a total of $93.2 million in prize money.
Right now, Fortnite Battle Royale is the gaming industry’s biggest phenomenon. It has more monthly players and higher revenue than PUBG and has become the biggest “free-to-play” console game ever (SuperData). In March alone, players spent $223 million on Fortnite in-game purchases up 73% from February.
Epic has confirmed that all of the $100 million is for the first season of competitive play, so we can be assured that there will be some big Fortnite events in the coming year. Epic will provide information about competitive structures and eligible platforms in the coming weeks.
What This Means for Brands
Epic say that their approach to esports will be different to that of other competitive esports. They say,
“We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different — we plan to be more inclusive and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game.”
The current core esport demographic, although it varies from game to game, is predominantly young and male. Epic is trying to break this mold and appeal to a broader audience.
Fortnite already has a wider audience than most games. Epic Games is trying to use Fortnite’s diverse audience as a catalyst to bring new groups into the esports sector. Exactly how they plan to do this is unclear at the moment but given the game’s huge mainstream following (both amongst players and followers on Twitch) and with $100 million at stake, it seems certain they will be able to make a big impact.
The expected outcome of Epic’s move is that a larger and more diverse audience will enter the esports market, bringing with it more mainstream brands and advertisers. Of course, this will also mean more demand for the solutions that EIP marketing platform brings to the esports market.
Fortnite in China
Chinese tech giant Tencent, which owns 40% of Epic Games, recently spent $15 million on marketing Fortnite in China. A large proportion of this is to promote Fortnite as an esport and build the game’s esport scene in China.
Tencent is a big player in esports — it created the mobile version of PUBG, which launched in China last autumn and last month in the US. It also created the popular mobile-only MOBA Arena of Valor/Honor of Kings, to be released in the US this year with a $500,000 esports tournament, the Arena of Valor World Cup in Los Angeles in July. On top of all this, Tencent also owns a majority share of League of Legends maker Riot Games.
Fortnite forms part of a larger plan for growing the esports industry in China, that includes the creation of leagues and tournaments, nurturing upcoming players and constructing esports themed industrial parks.
Fortnite at E3, 2018
Fortnite will have a booth at E3, the games industry biggest Expo which runs from June 12–14. This is unusual for a game that is already released and perhaps signals that they will be making a big announcement, possibly regarding their future plans in esports.
Additionally, they are holding the Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am, where popular streamers and celebrities will team up in a doubles tournament with a $3 million prize pool. In total there will be 50 pro-players and 50 celebrities taking part, with pairings to include Ninja and Marshmello, Myth and Paul George, and Markiplier and Joel McHale.
Fortnite’s shift from gaming into esports seem certain to have a big impact on the industry by bringing more newcomers and a greater diversity of fans to the sector. Further investment and more non-endemic brands will likely follow, pushing esports marketing even further into the mainstream. This can only be good for the future growth of the industry.
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