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Fortnite Does It Again: Incentivizes More Monetization

Paul Ausick

Published: October 9, 2018 10:55 am

Last Updated: January 11, 2020 4:42 pm

By Doug Clinton and Steve VanSloun of Loup Ventures

• Fornite (Epic Games) recognizes the importance of the influencer community on gamers perhaps better than any other publisher.
• Fortnite recently announced “Support-a-Creator,” a way for players to support their favorite video makers, streamers, storytellers, artists, cosplayers, musicians, and community builders.
• Players select a Creator to support, and the Creator receives 5% of all V-buck purchases a player makes.
• There are 1,345 different Creators to support today.
• The event starts Monday, October 8th, and runs through the end of the year.

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Fortnite’s announcement of Support-a-Creator will incentivize players to spend more V-Bucks in the holiday season, as they know a portion of their proceeds will go to the Creators they favor. Players have the option to select a Creator to support, and every V-Buck purchase they make will count towards that Creator. Every 14 days, the Creator selection is reset, and players can reselect the same Creator or choose a new one.

Creators will receive $5 for every 10,000 V-Bucks players spent using their tags. For context, 1,000 V-Bucks is $9.99, so for every $99.99 that a player spends on Fortnite, Epic will pay 5% to Creators. We expect to see a power law distribution with top Creators earning a majority of the total payout from Epic.

While the vast majority of Creators won’t see a lot of money through this program, it’s a new way in which: 1) Epic Games is attempting to incentivize monetization, and 2) Epic is choosing to share revenue with other partners. This experiment could lead to other monetization methods such as Creator-designed skins and emotes. Fortnite’s “Support-a-Creator” program may be setting the stage for another revenue source for streamers, game studios themselves. It’s clear that Epic understands how important influencers are in motivating consumers, especially younger consumers, to spend money on products.

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