Epic Games has been raking in the cash thanks to the sensation popularity of its headline shooter Fortnite.
Fortnite Battle Royale has rocketed into the stratosphere, attracting millions of players worldwide every day.
The free-to-play game offers in-game purchases to generate revenue from its players, selling skins and cosmetics for characters.
There are reportedly more than 125 million global Fortnite players who have logged in since the game released on PC, but how much money has Epic Games made from Fortnite?
How much is Fortnite worth to Epic Games?
The answer to this question is a simple, but staggering one: An obscene amount of money is generated from Fortnite microtransactions.
Before revealing Epic Games’ revenue from Fortnite, it is worth giving the numbers some context.
Fortnite is entirely free to download on almost every single console from anywhere in the world.
Unlike most video game selling structures, Epic Games decided to release Fortnite for free to download on PC back in 2017 as a player vs engine (PVE) game where players defend a base from waves of relentless zombies.
After PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds was released on PC, driving up the hype for battle royale games, Epic Games released a copycat mode to attract new players who are into the trend.
Still downloadable for free, Epic Games then started releasing Fortnite to other consoles, which, to date, includes; PC, Mac, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch and iOS devices.
Fortnite is still not available on Android devices, which leaves out more than 2 billion active users who are yet to play Battle Royale on their phone.
Because the game is free, Epic Games offers in-game items and skins for purchase in the Item Store.
Players can input their debit/credit card and buy V-Bucks, the in-game currency, to buy legendary skins, cosmetics, and bling to make them stand out in game.
Again, for context, here is how Fortnite V-Bucks brackets break down as:
• 500 + 100 bonus (plus the Rogue Agent outfit and Catalyst Black Bling backpack) – £3.99/$4.99
• 1000 – £7.99/$9.99
• 2500 + 300 bonus – £19.99/$24.99
• 6000 + 1500 bonus – £49.99/$59.99
• 10000 + 3500 bonus – £79.99/$99.99
A Fortnite skin can cost anywhere from 500 V-Bucks for an uncommon skin, to 1,500 for legendary ones.
In spite of all this, Epic Games has generated more than $1 billion dollars worldwide exclusively from in-game purchases.
That is enough money to buy Italian football team AC Milan and is enough money to buy the Solomon Islands in their entirety.
Market research firm Superdata published a report on Fortnite and battle royale games in general that includes this staggering figure, as well as a non-specific visual aid indicating that its monthly revenue has only increased each month from October 2017 to May of this year.
Previous Supernate reports suggest Epic Games made £223 million in revenue through March alone.
Express.co.uk previously reported Epic Games had generated more than $90 million in revenue in just under 90 days when it released Fortnite on iOS devices.
Fortnite’s epic success is easy to understand when you realise that Battle Royale was watched for more than 700 million hours on Twitch and Youtube through the month of May.