The developers of Fortnite, the hugely popular apocalyptic survival video game,  have announced a $100m prize fund up for grabs to the game’s best players.
It is believed to be the biggest sum of money ever on offer for an e-sports tournament – although it is unknown if the money will be invested in only one huge tournament or several smaller ones.
Epic, which makes the game for Windows, Mac, Xbox and Playstation, has had incredible success with its games Fortnite: Save the World (originally known as ‘Fortnite’), and Fortnite: Battle Royale. It is the latter of the two which has attracted more users as it is free to download – in fact over 40 million people have downloaded the game.

Celebrity Following

The aim of the game is to stay alive on an island, playing as an individual or as part of a team, to ward off monsters, build forts and defend the survivors. It has attracted famous people including rapper Drake and Spurs footballer Dele Alli, amongst others.
Now, Epic has set aside a prize fund for the first year of competitive play of the game, due to begin later this year.
In a blogpost, it said:
“Fortnite Competitors! Grab your gear, drop in and start training. 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.
“Stay tuned for more details about competitive structures and eligible platforms in the weeks ahead!”.

Epic prize fund is affordable

The only other e-sports brand that has given out anything near $100m is DOTA 2, and that is an accumulative amount over the last five years.
While it is a huge amount of money for a game that most people do not pay for, Epic can afford it as it makes money from the free version of the game through in-game purchases. In fact rumors suggest that the company is making more than $1m per day from its mobile version of the game alone.
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