One hundred meeeeellion dollars: Epic dumps serious cash into Fortnite esports

Enlarge / Apparently, enough people are buying Fortnite's wholly optional outfits and dance moves to fuel $100 million of prizes for the game's first year of esports tourneys. (credit: Epic Games)

How serious is Fortnite as a video gaming phenomenon? Today's announcement of the shooter game's first esports prize pool is a pretty stark indicator, as publisher Epic Games has promised to invest no less than $100 million into the game's first year of competitive gaming.

You read that correctly: $100,000,000.

To understand how huge a number that is, a few comparison points are in order. The online five-on-five video game Dota 2 has enjoyed a robust esports life across the entire world since Valve took over the series' development, but that game needed five years of competitive life to crack the $100 million mark. According to the Dota 2 Prize Tracker site, that games' worldwide esports cume since 2013 currently totals $105 million, which doesn't include the $10 million-and-counting prize for the upcoming International 2018 tournament being held later this summer.

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