The Newest Gamer Millionaire
An American teenager Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf has emerged victorious, and bagged the $3 million Fortnite World Cup prize money on Sunday, July 28th, in New York.
Bugha toppled competition and won the solo finals portion of the Fortnite World Cup by scoring 59 points. He managed to score 26 more than the closest contender Harrison “Psalm” Chang, according to the Fortnite World Cup Leaderboard.
In an interview at the event, at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, Bugha expressed happiness on winning “Words can’t even explain it. I’m just so happy”, he said. “Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”, he added.
A Successful Event
After a rigorous 10 weeks of open qualifiers that attracted more than 40 million competitors, the Fortnite World Cup finals was a major success, and not to mention overflowing with prizes. The 100 qualifiers, players aged between 12 and 16 years, were competing for a total prize pot of $30m, the largest ever for an esports event.
Launched in 2017, Fortnite’s popularity has helped Epic Games reach a US$15 billion valuation last year. So, prize money of this scale has, therefore, become possible. It shares the market with other games like Apex Legends and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
Not A Surprising Amount of Cash
The amount may be staggering, but it is not something to be surprised by. Global revenues from esports are predicted to hit US$1.1 billion in 2019, which is 27 percent higher than last year. The rapid growth is due to booming revenues from advertising, sponsorship, and media rights.
Overall, the global video and electronic games market is on a roll. Even without the revenues from esports, it will still generate a whopping US$152.1 billion in 2019, a 9.6 percent increase over last year, according to a report by gaming analytics firm Newzoo.
