Fortnite World Cup brought the finalists $30 million in prize money. What does this mean for the esports market?
On July 28, the first ever Fortnite World Cup was held. His prize fund was a fabulous $ 30 million. We are figuring out how this will affect the world of esports, together with Roman Dvoryankin, the general manager of the team Virtus.pro .
About the amount of prize money
100 finalists from 40 million players were selected for the final round of the Fortnite World Cup. The record amount was eventually won by 16-year-old American Kyle Giersdorf. For winning the solo event, he got $3 million out of $30 million in prize money. The remaining money was distributed among the winners of other events.
The prize pool did not become a record, but it allowed Fortnite to approach the level of The International Dota 2. But Epic Games’ investments were not limited to these $30 million (plus another $11 million for qualifying matches).
More than a year ago, the company announced plans to allocate $100 million for its esports events. “This decision looks quite reasonable based on the amounts that the developer receives from in—game sales,” notes in a comment for App2Top.ru Roman Dvoryankin, General Manager of the team Virtus.pro , which also participated in the tournament.
For Epic Games, the Fortnite World Cup is a far—reaching investment. Thanks to her, the game can interest both pro-players and ordinary gamers for a long time. This means that it will make a profit, which sooner or later will allow you to recapture the specified $ 100 million.
“The tournament was promoted by a huge PR success – it generally helped bring the esports tournament to the level of mainstream entertainment,” says Roman Dvoryankin.
At the same time, Fortnite World Cup had no direct advertisers. All income came from ticket sales and media outlets. Epic Games probably doesn’t see the point in monetizing the event, which, again, makes it related to Valve. According to Dvoryankin, the tournament is valuable in itself, and it “does not need additional binding in the form of sponsors.”
About the competition with Dota 2
“I don’t think [Fortnite World Cup] will radically change the market,” says Dvoryankin. — The winners of The International tournament have been receiving comparable money in terms of one person for several years. On the other hand, there are also new factors: for example, the discipline is individual, so we can expect an influx of interest in competitive Fortnite from novice esports players who do not belong to any organizations.”
By the way, this year the authors of Steam have collected over $31 million in prize money for The International. This amount continues to grow even now. But the fact that this year’s Fortnite World Cup almost became the largest esports event in history (in terms of prize pool) speaks volumes.
Will Epic Games’ battle royale be able to beat Dota 2 next year? There is a possibility, and here’s why.
- The International Valve provided the inflow of funds to the prize fund through battle passes. The prize money goes to 25% of their sales. By the way, a similar scheme would work with Fortnite, Dvoryankin believes: “I’m surprised that no one except Valve has yet used this mechanic.”Valve received large sums from Chinese players.
- There are a lot of Dota 2 fans in the country, and that’s where The International will be held this year. However, next year the event will be moved to another country. “It’s not a fact that people will buy such a number of “combat passes,” — notes Dvoryankin. “So, on the one hand, it will be interesting to see if Fortnite can overtake Valve, on the other hand, how Valve will fuel interest in its World Cup with in—game items.”About the audience’s reaction
It remains to add that the Fortnite World Cup final has become the second most popular esports event on Twitch.
According to GitHyp, on Sunday, the peak of simultaneous Fortnite World Cup viewers was 1.3 million, which is significantly higher than the CS results:GO and League of Legends. By the way, the championship in the rating is also for Fortnite. Or rather, behind her last year’s Celebrity Pro-Am event with a result of 1.5 million simultaneous viewers.
Before the tournament, the data indicated that the game had problems: she steadily lost in views and viewers. For example, the large-scale completion of the ninth season was not even included in the top ten most viewed Fortnite events.
However, Epic Games’ marketing investment obviously worked, and Fortnite was able to increase the interest of players.
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