Even before Fortnite Battle Royale launched on mobile, it was a pretty big game, and launching it on mobile simply made it even bigger with reports that Epic Games made $25 million in revenue just from the iOS version alone. Safe to say that Fortnite is here to stay and Epic wants to encourage more competitive play.So much so that they have announced that they will be backing eSports tournaments based around the game with a prize pool of $100 million. Of course it will be distributed across the various tournaments that take place within the 2018-2019 season, but it’s still a lot of money that Epic is committing to the game.
According to the company, “Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale we’ve watched the passion for community competition grow and can’t wait to empower you to battle with the best. In the 2018 – 2019 season, Epic Games will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions. 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.”
Epic’s commitment is also the largest as far as eSports are concerned. Considering the money that Valve raises for DotA 2 every year for The International, you would think that DotA 2 might have the most, but according to Esports Earnings, Valve was estimated to have spent $38 million across 159 tournaments last year, so for Epic to go all out with $100 million is a pretty huge deal.
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