- Documents show that in 2019 Epic Games expected Fortnite esports earning to be significantly higher
- The information reveals that Epic projected $4.59 billion
- The data became available during the lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple
Turns out Epic games overestimated how much the competitive scene would grow.
Estimations vs. Reality
Fortnite quickly took the world by storm soon after its initial release. The game’s free format attracted many new people and the gameplay proved to be suitable for high-level competitive play. However for all the remarkable growth Fortnite has experienced, it still failed to meet Epic Games’ expectations for revenues.
In documents that were recently submitted, it became clear that Epic Games’ projections in 2019 estimated the Fortnite would be earning more than it did. In 2019 the company expected as much as $4.59 billion in total revenue and got $4.2 billion instead. It seems that $154 million of this unrealized potential were because the Fortnite esports scene didn’t prove to be as lucrative as Epic Games had hoped.
One of the reasons for this is that the World Cup in 2019 did not feature any sponsors. Epic revealed that back then they had tried to partner with Apple but to no avail.
The Fortnite World Cup back then was then won by then sixteen years old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf who earned the grand prize of $3 million and quickly rose as a star in the gaming world.
How This Data Came into Light
Epic Games is not a publicly traded company so usually, we wouldn’t have gotten the aforementioned information. However, this all was revealed because of the ongoing lawsuit between Epic and Apple. Epic had to put some documents forward before the legislative body and they happened to reveal this curious information.
Recently Epic purposefully violated Apple’s app store rules to highlight the latter company’s excessive use of power. This led to Epic being banned from the platform. In return, Epic started this lawsuit, based on its stance that Apple abuses its power to establish a monopoly in the iOS world. According to Epic, Apple uses numerous foul anti-competitive tactics to keep itself on the top.
Regardless if Fortnite failure to meet its creators’ monetary expectations in 2019, it remains as one of the leading powers in the world of competitive gaming. Its success is so great that Epic Games has now risen enough to challenge the authority of one of the giants in the world of technology.
