A hundred pro gamers, celebrities, musicians and entertainers will descend upon Los Angeles in June to battle it out for the first ever competitive Fortnite Battle Royale tournament. The game’s Battle Royale format has exploded in popularity since launching towards the end of 2017, vastly eclipsing its base Save The World format. It is now setting itself up as a serious rival to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and developer Epic Games is capitalizing on its popularity by tapping into the extremely lucrative esports market. It is launching the Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am tournament in LA in June, which promises to be an entertaining and exhilarating event. That should send its popularity soaring even higher and help it attract sponsorship deals and boost stars’ earnings, ensuring its fantastic momentum is maintained.
Fortnite Battle Royale is perfectly set up to take the world of esports by storm, and it has several famous backers, including the rapper Drake, whose recent stream with pro gamer Ninja went viral, and even actress Roseanne Barr. Esports are set to overtake traditional sports like football and basketball in terms of popularity in the not too distant future, and everyone wants a piece of it. Massive brands like Mountain Dew, Intel and Samsung are sponsoring it. Pro sports franchises increasingly have their own esports teams, from the New England Patriots to the Golden State Warriors.
If you make sure to check Bovada for the latest odds you will see all manner of betting lines on a range of leading esports games, including Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends. Fortnite Battle Royale has a long way to go before its developers can dream of matching such established games – whose stars earn millions of dollars a year – but if its initial surge in popularity is anything to go by, it could eventually go on to rival them. Within a month of launch it already had 40 million players, as its free-release Battle Royale format massively eclipsed the base, paid-for Save The World format. It now looks set to rival the enormously popular PUBG and other leading last man standing, player versus player games.
Until now, the only esports Fortnite Battle Royale events have been small, regional LAN tournaments. But Fortnite Party Royale, which takes place at E3 2018 in Los Angeles from June 12-14, is set to change all that. There is always the danger of a third party event organizer like the Intel Extreme Masters or the Electronic Sports League launching a strong Fortnite Battle Royal league, so Epic is bidding to steal a march on them and establish its own market leading event. It is launching Fortnite Party Royale to great fanfare, promising to bring together “some of the world’s greatest athletes, musicians and entertainers with top Fortnite Battle Royale players from across the globe”.
They will be 100 hopefuls taking part in the Fortnite Celebrity Pro-Am, 50 pro gamers and 50 celebrities. Ninja is expected to take part, as is Myth, a popular streamer and the first player to secure a pro contract for Fortnite Battle Royale after signing with TeamSoloMid. Speculation rages on various forums and platforms about who else will be there, and a heady blend of rappers and pro sports stars dominates, with Barr, Drake, James Harden, John Cena, Geoff Keighley, Post Malone, Jack Black, Ice T, Snoop Dogg, Desus and Mero among the popular choices. Epic Gaming has promised to reveal details soon about the contestants and several high-profile stars are being touted, so it promises to be a colossal event with an enormous social media footprint, meaning the exorbitant rise of Fortnite Battle Royale looks only set to continue.
