Epic Games raises over $1 billion in newest financing round
After an incredibly successful year with the rising popularity of Fortnite Battle Royale, Epic Games has achieved another large milestone.
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If it wasn’t enough that Fortnite continues to be one of the biggest games on the planet, Epic Games just received a massive boost from some big-name investors.
On October 26, the same day Fortnite’s $2.6 million event at TwitchCon kicks off, it was announced that Epic had received $1.25 billion in financing from a group of investors that includes aXiomatic, the company that just a $25 million investment from NBA legend Michael Jordan.
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In addition to aXiomatic, Epic received investments from KKR, Iconiq Capital, Smash Ventures, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
With these names being some of the biggest in the Silicon Valley venture capital investment scene, it’s just yet another sign of Fortnite’s immense growth and potential here in 2018.
This latest round of investments is perhaps the biggest sign yet that companies are ready to pay top dollar for esports properties over the next few years.
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Esports consultant Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau summed it up perfectly when he said that “the war over competitive video games and esports […] has only begun.”
The war over competitive video games and esports between Epic, Activision Blizzard, Valve, Riot Games, and Ubisoft has only begun. Bethesda and Rockstar are next. And Tencent is there smiling in the shadows.
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 26, 2018
Speaking of Tencent, Slasher was also quick to remind everyone that Tencent already has a large stake in the esports scene, having invested in multiple companies already.
Reminder from @blakeir that Tencent owns stakes in all these esports game developers:
Riot (League of Legends): 100%
Supercell (Clash Royale): 80%
Epic (Fortnite): 48%
Bluehole (PUBG): 10%
Activision Blizzard (OW, SC, HS, HoTS): 5%
Ubisoft (Rainbow6): 5%https://t.co/VpKCJ9W5uN— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) October 26, 2018
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With Fortnite’s first competitive season featuring a $100 million prize pool spread across the different Skirmish and upcoming World Cup events, time will tell what the prize pool for Season 2 looks like after these investments.
If nothing else, this simply caps off an impressive week for esports after Drake, Michael Jordan, and now the Silicon Valley, have taken the dive with major investments.
