Skip to main content

Epic Games will give away $100 million in first year of competitive ‘Fortnite’

Battle Royale Dev Update #11 - Solo Showdown, E3 and Competitive Play

Epic Games has made an insane amount of money in the last few months because of its free-to-play battle royale shooter Fortnite, with estimates for its revenue in February at about $126 million. The developer isn’t content to just rake in the cash, however, as it plans to give away nearly that much through prize pools in the game’s first year of competitive play.

Recommended Videos

During the upcoming 2018-2019 competitive Fortnite: Battle Royale season, Epic Games will contribute $100 million to prize pools. This is a ludicrous amount of money, with individual competitions likely exceeding the prize pool of the The International, a Dota 2 event.

It sounds like Epic Games will be taking a more laid-back approach to competitive play, however, which seems in line with the nature of battle royale — your success or failure in one game has no effect on your next one.

“We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different,” Epic Games said in a blog post. “We plan to be more inclusive and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game.”

Epic added that it will share more details on competition in the coming weeks, and it isn’t clear if its money will only be given to Epic-run events.

Fortnite has certainly exploded in popularity on services like Twitch, with personalities like Ninja drawing in hundreds of thousands of viewers and teaming up with celebrities including Drake and Travis Scott.

The game’s cross-platform support has also helped, with players able to keep their progress across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Mac, PC, and iOS. The game is also scheduled to come to Android devices this summer. With the exception of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, all platforms can play with all other platforms, which isn’t the case with PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Over the weekend, Fortnite ran a special “Solo Showdown” event, which ranked players on a leaderboard based on their 50 placement matches. Depending on where they ended up when all was said and done, they had the potential to earn up to 50,000 in-game V-Bucks. Just 14,500 V-Bucks are sold for $100, so the prize was beyond chump change.

Gabe Gurwin
Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…
Everything new in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 1: maps, new weapons, and more
Fortnite Chapter 6 key art

The much-anticipated Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 1 has finally arrived and it has brought with it an entirely new world for loopers to explore that is based on Japanese mythology and culture. From dense forests to Samurai arenas, you'll find tons of variety on the map that will alter your gameplay approach in every single match.

There's a lot to explore since Epic has changed things drastically in the game, given that it's an entirely new chapter rather than a seasonal release. So if you're looking for everything that's been added in this season, here are all the latest additions in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 1: Demon Hunters.
All new additions in Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 1
New Battle Pass

Read more
New Riot Games policy will tackle creator conduct outside of games
Jett illustration from Valorant.

Riot Games is making a huge change to its terms of service that can punish creators for behavior that violates its codes of conduct when they're not actively in-game, with updates set to go into effect on January 3, 2025.

In a blog post published Friday (thanks, Eurogamer), the League of Legends developer announced that many of these updates target content off-platform when it's tied back to Riot games. So if a creator engages in less-than-appropriate conduct in spaces where a player's or fan's experience can still be negatively impacted, they can face penalties in-game. Riot clarifies that it's not going to monitor social media, but it can take action if something comes to its attention.

Read more
You can vote for The Game Awards in Fortnite and meet an uncanny Geoff Keighley
The Game Awards trophy looming large over a Fortnite island.

Fortnite is once again holding a special in-game edition of The Game Awards, and players can vote for their favorite creator-developed islands.

The limited-time world, called The Game Awards Vote in Fortnite, lets players easily explore the nominated islands, which include an MMO, multiple escape room, and a roguelike. They can vote by going to the world and voting before 9 p.m. ET December 11, the day before the awards air. You can get there with island code 0853-1358-8532.

Read more