Epic Games has announced that it will be providing a $100 million prize pool money for Fortnite competitions during the first year of competitive play. This is an attractive price which will definitely push the game at the top of the esports industry. The competitions will take place officially some time later this year, although very little is known about the kind of approach Epic Games will be taking.  

Whichever format Fortnite decides to pursue, the figure alone will immediately take them to the top of the e-sports industry. Researchers from E-sports Earnings who track video game prize pools from across the world found out that Valve’s Dota 2 paid more than $140 million to players since 2013. Other lucrative games like Counter Strike: GO and League of Legends pulled out a cumulative total of above $50 million. Even Overwatch paid only $3.5 million in their inaugural year.

They said on a blog post that “Epic Games will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions in 2018-2019. We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way but our approach will be different.”

It is still up to speculation whether Epic is planning a single large tournament circuit or a few smaller tournaments around the glove. The company has always cared about inclusivity in their market segments, which is one of the reasons why they decided to launch the title as a free to play across all major platforms including Android and iOS.

There are hints that the company’s motto about focusing on the ‘joy of playing and spectating’ directly suggest that they could take a format similar to top Twitch streamer Tyler Blevins’ Las Vegas event, where more than 200 people all over the country joined in to compete against him and other high ranking players.

Money matters

Money is no longer an issue for Epic Games, because researchers from Sensor Tower estimate that they are pulling in more than $1 million per day from Fortnite on mobile apps alone, despite being a free-to-play game, which means that gamers can download it for free and jump into the combat. But in order to make money, epic offers cosmetic items such as character costumes and in-game dance moves that a payer can collect for celebratory purposes.

Players can even get refund on certain cosmetic items, but there’s a catch, they must be bought within the last 30 days.

In order to keep players hooked to their seats and interested in all activities related to Fortnite, Epic will be hosting a tournament in Log Angeles during the E3 convention, where they will bring in 50 celebrities and 50 YouTubers and Twitch streamers playing in teams of two.