It is Battle Royale year! Game developers are hooked with the multiplayer Battle Royale concept such as Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) and Fortnite. Even Activision is getting into the act, announcing the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will have its own Battle Royal Mode when it gets released in October.

But Fortnite wants to be the king of online Battle Royale, announcing that it will be putting up a total of US$100 million dollars prize pool for its Battle Royale eSports competitions:

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!

Not much details on how this pans out if it is going to be one big tournament or a series of competitions around the world. But with the announcement of the prize pool, Fortnite just became one of the top eSports that will be attracting some of the top gamers who look at it to be lucrative. Dota 2 from Valve still rules the roost as it has already awarded over US$140 million over the years.

Ever since Epic Games released the Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017, the game experienced exponential growth gaining 10 million players within two weeks after it got released. As of March 2018, it has at least 45 million players and has already overtaken PUBG in revenues and number of players.
For such a young game, many are wondering if Epic Games can afford the prize pool. Not to worry, according to a report in Forbes, Fortnite is earning over US$1 million a day and is expected to earn US$ 500 million this year if the trend is sustained. That’s a lot of moolah and should make Epic Games comfortable as long as it keeps players happy.

Next month, Epic Games will be holding a competition that will feature athletes, entertainers and the top Fortnite Battle Royale players for a Party Royale Celebrity Pro-Am at the E3 next month in Los Angeles. They will be pairing to battle it for the US$3 million prize that will be donated to the winning pair’s chosen charity.