NEW YORK: In what is arguably THE defining moment in e-sports, which is estimated to be a billion-dollar industry in 2019, the Fortnite World Cup crowned its world champions Sunday, with creators Epic Games handing out $30 million collectively in prize money across four main categories – Solo, Duos, ProAM and Creative.
In what is the largest prize pool in the history of e-sports, the big winner in Sunday’s Solo challenge was 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, who beat all comers in the grand finale at New York’s iconic Arthur Ashe stadium,to win a monster $3 million prize money cheque. For some context, Giersdorf’s winnings is “only” $800,000 less than what the 2019 US Open men’s and women’s champions, which is set to begin in a few weeks at the same venue, will individually take home.
For the record, this year’s Wimbledon champions Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep won just under $3 million each for their efforts, while Tiger Woods won $2 million for besting the field of competitors at this year’s golf Masters.
“Emotionally, right now, I don’t feel too much, except I know that this could pretty much change my life forever,” Giersdorf said in an interview with ESPN. “It’s just absolutely unreal.”
The Fortnite finals saw 100 players battling on giant computer screens representing over 30 nations. Forty million (emphasis ours) players attempted to qualify over 10 weeks of online competition and the tournament pulled in nearly 9 million viewers for the final day of the competition on YouTube alone.
What is truly mind boggling though is that the Fortnite World Cup’s record prize money pool is set to be broken in August itself by another event called The International.
Coming back to Fortnite, the game has 200 million registered players worldwide and is free to download, but players can spend money on in-game purchases.
Epic Games pulled out all of the stops it could for the multi-day event at Arthur Ashe stadium. In addition to pulling in some of the top names in live streaming and competitive e-sports to participate in the event, the company also brought in the DJ Marshmello for a performance, TechCrunch reports.
According to the tech news platform, Epic Games banked a $3 billion profit in 2018. Fortnite became the world’s most popular game last year, growing the company’s valuation to $15 billion.
