16-year-old wins $3 million playing Fortnite

A 16-year-old boy recently won more money playing Fortnite than Tiger Woods did for winning the Masters golf championship.

Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf placed first in the solo tournament rankings at the Fortnite World Cup Finals, earning himself a tidy $3 million in the process.

The tournament was held between July 26-28 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City, with a total prize pool of $30 million.

Bugha started his competition strong, winning the first of six games. He then proceeded to place high in the rankings and accumulate more eliminations in the following games, giving him a healthy points lead and eventually closing the tournament as the victor.

Twitter user Travis Kling was quick to point out an interesting fact regarding the winnings. He tweeted:

“In case you’re wondering if eSports is really going to be that big of a deal, the winners of the Fortnite tournament just brought home $3mn… Which is $1mn more than Tiger made for winning the Masters.”

This point reaffirms the astounding rise of eSports and the huge amount of money the space is generating. Year after year, it has continued to grow exponentially to the point where the prize pool of a Fortnite competition now eclipses that of a major sporting tournament.

Elsewhere in the Fortnite World Cup Finals, 15-year-old Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman, from Essex in the UK, placed second in the duos tournament with his Dutch teammate Dave ‘Rojo’ John. In placing second, the pair won $2.25 million, which they will split.

Many of the players at the Fortnite World Cup Finals were aged between 12 and 16, highlighting a rising trend in children and teenagers taking on gaming as a legitimate career path.

Travis Kling also highlighted another interesting point, tweeting: “Worth noting this is directionally very bullish for crypto. This is *massive* fiat currency surrounding a digital world. These digital worlds themselves have massive fiat economies existing inside them.”

It remains to be seen whether cryptocurrencies will be implemented into major eSports tournaments, but with Twitch recently reinstating Bitcoin donations and payments, it might not be too long before this becomes a reality.

Interested in reading more eSports-related stories? Discover more about the role eSports is playing in the UK.