Invictus Gaming burst onto the scene in 2011 with its win of the 2011 World Cyber Games. The organization is also the only other Eastern European team to win the prestigious award. G2 Esports (commonly shortened to just G2 and formerly known as Gamers2) is a European esports organization headquartered in Berlin, Germany, with players competing in League of Legends, Valorant, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Hearthstone, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, and iRacing. The teams base is in Hangzhou, China. Team OG 3. The Kraft Group 9. Teams not only have to pick the right games to compete in but also have to hope those titles stay relevant. 10 Team Liquid . Honda 5. Plateauing values are leading early investorsincluding many venture capitalists, who according to Pitchbook have poured $4.8 billion into esports over the past five yearsto put the pressure on companies to make money. Sponsorships help too. Esports companies are constantly buying and selling teams and players to compete in the best leagues and build audiences on Amazons Twitch and Alphabets YouTube. Big companies approach teams with bids and contracts when they gain notoriety for their skills and a considerable fan base. TSM is valued at $540 million, the most valuable esports company in 2022. Fnatic is London-based, although many of its best players are Swedish. One other development that could help or hurt teams is Microsofts pending acquisition of Activision, one of gamings biggest publishers. This has led to esports companies raising capital by the buckets. They handpicked skilled players who were highly ranked on the Chinese Dota ladder at the time. Alexander Garfield originally founded the team as a Canadian Counter-Strike team in 1999. Those numbers dont tell the whole story, however. Fnatic also qualified for both Dota Majors this year and Dota's season-ending championship: The International 2022. . team and the $321K it made in 2020 to the No. Immortals is now reportedly shopping its OWL franchise. With that championship, the team took home $1.79M in prize money after defeating the Atlanta FaZe in the finals three maps to two. They also have teams playing other games, including League of Legends, StarCraft II, WarCraft III, FIFA, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. eSport Roster Positions Roster Titles; League of Legends: 5: . Virtus.pro is a Russian eSports team, established in 2003. LGD then created another Dota squad, which they called LGD.int. It would make more sense just to pay the $46 (statistically) Edit: Although, this doesn't account for the worth of the other guns you get that aren't USP. 10. Of Tournaments - 474 Total Prize Money - $11.1 million Natus Vincere, also called Na'Vi or NaVi is an Esports team based in Ukraine. League, took home $1.55M in prize money out of a total prize pool of $3.05M over the course of the regular season and playoffs. Sponsorship is the biggest revenue stream ($359 million this year), followed by advertising ($174 million), media rights ($161 million), game publishing fees ($116 million) and merchandise and tickets ($96 million). So what makes an eSports team? Their reach spreads far and wide in esports, including teams in PUBG, Fortnite, Apex Legends, and even a League of Legends Academy squad. Launched in 2003, the team was then known as SK Telecom or SKT T1. It plays a wider range of games than many other teams. Thus revenue and projections could be slashed and the high valuations could tumble. 5 - Spacestation Gaming: $1.36M Coming in at No. 4, Spacestation Gaming more than tripled its esports prize money earnings from last year where they earned $436K. That same month the revenue of FaZe Clan was estimated $40 million. Here are the Top 5 Richest Esports Organizations: 5. 2 earner last year by receiving more than $9M in prize money. And Scooter Braun, manager of Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande, recently co-led a Series A round, bringing total funding to $25 million. Another CIS team from top 10 best esports teams of our list is Team Spirit. The company, founded by former Call of Duty champion Matthew Nadeshot Haag, 28, expects to make $16 million in revenue this year, a leap of 60%. It has separate teams of players playing Dota and League of Legends. Lee Aik Soon/Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images, TSM has the richest sponsorship deal in esports, a ten-year, $210 million naming rights agreement with crypto exchange FTX, but its real selling point is its tech businesses: Blitz, an app that trains users in popular video games, and Dyno, which offers a moderation bot for Discord servers. Team SoloMid, the second-most-valuable company ($225 million) and the only one known to be cash-flow positive, is the winningest North American team in League of Legends, with six championships. Pepsi's Mountain Dew 6. On the last edition of this list, in 2020, Enthusiast ranked No. The Atlanta FaZe of the Call of Duty League did everything they could to be successful in 2020. TSM, which rebranded to TSM FTX after signing a $210 million partnership with the exchange, is valued at $540 million, the most valuable esports company in 2022. Manchester United, the iconic publicly traded English soccer team, has a comparable multiple of 5. Syed Sumail Hassan, otherwise called Sumail, is a Pakistani-American expert Dota 2 player for Team Secret. Cloud9 is the most valuable professional esports company, worth $310 million, in part because of its success across a wide variety of games. It became active in 2009 and became the first team to win three major tournaments in a single calendar year. Cloud9 Cloud9 was the first and only North American team to win a CounterStrike: Global Offensive Major in 2018. Here are the ten most valuable esports companies. As the squad continues to look for an in-game commander, Danny #BERRY Krger will replace Sprout in their future matches in the ESL Challenger League Season 44 and the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1, according to esports media sources. Evil Geniuses is a subsidiary of GoodGame Agency, owned by Amazons Twitch division. Evil Geniuses 4. You can start playing right now, in guest mode!10*1.70 = 17.00. Below are the 12 most valuable esports companies in the world. Team Liquid's estimated value is $310 million and they successfully generated $28 million this year. This year, Team Secret made about 33% of the prize pool money the organization won in 2019. SynerGE (PUBG Mobile) SynerGE is a mobile gaming team where the owner for the team is Sameer Peerjade and the CEO of the team is Dr. Rushindra Sinha, Mohit Israney, Yash Manoj Singh. The interest in eSports has hit critical mass, ensuring that there are sufficient high-paying tournaments to justify a competitive full-time lifestyle. The fanfare around the sky-high valuation assigned to FaZe in the fall masked some fundamental concerns about its businessissues that became more acute when, in an amended SEC filing last week, it revised its forecasts downward. With a diversified team fielding structure, TSM participated and won money in 11 different games including League of Legends, Fortnite, and Valorant. We have previously discussed the rise of eSports influence on brands. Our 12 companies have an average enterprise value of 13 times 2018 estimated sales. The team participates in Clash Royale, Apex Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, Dragon Ball FighterZ, COD and many other eSports games. They were regional champs during Stage 2 of the European VCT season and finished top four at Masters: Copenhagen. Here are the top 10 teams in terms of prize money won for 2020. 100 Thieves Esports ($460m) Team Liquid ($440m) FaZe Clan ($400m) Cloud9 Esports Inc. ($380m) G2 Esports ($340m) Fnatic ($260m) Gen. G Esports ($250m) NRG Esports ($240m) T1 Esports ($220m) The last year saw tons of change in the landscape of the most valuable esports organizations. Were starting to see valuations become more in line with realities, says Bobby Sharma, an investment advisor for New York-based esports advisory firm Electronic Sports Group. . In 2017, there were 74 deals (the majority from angel and venture capital investors) worth $1.52 billion involving esports companies, according to PitchBook, up from six deals worth $34. If your goal is just to be the Dallas Cowboys and just operate in competitive gaming, that is cool, but its a long way off, says Andy Miller, CEO of NRG and co-owner of the NBAs Sacramento Kings. In the Forbes annual list of the most valuable eSports organizations, two teams share the top spotSoloMid and Cloud9. According to their annual report, Cloud9 is now worth an incredible $400 million. Paris Saint-Germain Esports is a French professional eSports brand. NBA teams have made the most dramatic moves this decade. If you want to succeed in Asia, you have to be the bestits all about competition. That certainly helps explain the success of Seoul-based T1. Titles include Age of Empires II, Apex Legends, and Fortnite. The company launched the community initiative Liquid+ last year and has a video content production arm in 1UP Studios and an influencer management agency in Liquid Media while still maintaining ownership of the wiki network Liquipedia. They initially focused on the original Dota, although they have since expanded to Dota 2. Recently the renowned Forbes magazine released their list of top 10 Esports org's by the amount of revenue generated for the year 2020 and the amount of money these Esports organizations generate is insane. Cloud9 are worth $400 million according to Forbes. The Biggest Esports Sponsors in the World 1. Who is the richest esports player? . Their $4 billion value, up 11%, ranks fifth among all sports. Team Envy (Valued $170 million)7. Maroun "GH" Merhej $4.1 Million. Influencer Marketing Hub Influencer Marketing Top 15 eSports Teams, Earnings, and Salaries. Here are 15 of the most popular eSports teams right now in alphabetical order. The organization also brought home more than $25K from, brought home the bulk of its 2020 prize money from. WSCs highlight automation improved the speed of ESPNs content creation. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Natus Vincere By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Fnatic was founded in 2004 with a Counter-Strike team. In 2020, 12 organizations who stumped up $25 million dollars will compete in the first season of the franchised Call of Duty League, while many have already paid millions in buy-ins to other franchised competitions like the Overwatch League and the LCS. Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game, played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. As the runner-up for the Call of Duty League the team took home a cool $900K to go along with its winnings from the various tournaments during league play. On top of that, talent is getting considerably more expensive, with players of the up-and-coming game Valorant able to demand as much as $30,000 a month, according to industry insiders. What could go wrong? Michal Konkol/Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images. Carlos ocelote Rodrguez ability to develop competitive teams in multiple titles helped propel, to No. No. It even supports television coverage, for those who still prefer the big screen, rather than livestreaming via Twitch on their tablet or phone. Disciplines. In 2017, there were 74 deals (the majority from angel and venture capital investors) worth $1.52 billion involving esports companies, according to PitchBook, up from six deals worth $34 million in 2008. A report last month by gaming data firm Newzoo found that the global esports audience was on track to reach 532 million this year, including 261 million esports enthusiasts who watch esports content more than once a month. Virtus.pro competes in two of the top esports with teams in CS:GO and Dota 2 which brought in the bulk of its prize money in 2020. According to Newzoo, the number of esports enthusiasts worldwide will reach 165 million in 2018, which translates to year-over-year growth of 15%. The influence of sports on business and culture. FaZes lineup includes Nickmercs, one of themost popular gamers on Twitch andhighest-paid in the industry, earning $6 million last year. Immortals own both OpTic Gaming and MiBR. However, the Russia-based esports organization also competes in titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. The deal also saw them snap up OpTics LCS spot, which will be rebranded to Immortals, and operate the Los Angeles Valiant OWL team and the MiBR CS:GO squad. Team Spirit is now stationed in Belgrade, Serbia. To account for market fluctuations, we used an average enterprise value between September 1 and December 1 and value the company at $180 million, ranking No. In August, the company acquired Omnia Media and expanded its reach to a total of 300 million gamers monthly, making it the largest gaming media platform in North America. In the meantime, though, new sponsors have found their way to teams as the pandemic has supercharged online viewership numbers, with esports young male audience long considered a desirable but hard-to-reach demographic among advertisers. That recognition has sent teams scrambling to expand to broader gaming culture and beyond, treating esports more like a customer acquisition funnel as they seek to justify their lofty valuations and continue to scale. Overwatch is already adding expansion teams, and Riot Games has begun selling franchises for its European league. FaZe Clan 14. NRG Esports (Valued $150 million)10. Thus far, there have been 63 deals worth $2.34 billion in 2018. This year? Team Spirit beat PSG.LGD in the Grand Finals of The International 2021, earning more than $18 million, the highest prize ever awarded in eSports. By creating a plan and pivoting to online events, NRGs umbrella teams were able to take home a significant amount of money. Founded in 2010, this team has exploded from a group of teens with video cams and a love for video gaming and into a multinational army of gamers. Zai's net worth is thought to be around $2,459,054 US dollars. For the first time since 2014, Fnatic comes in under the $1M mark, through no real fault of its own, riding its. For LoLbeing one of the leading esports titles in the world, the prize money is actually comparatively modest. General partners include Nike, Red Bull, HyperX. The Cowboys, owned by businessman Jerry Jones since 1989, have an estimated net worth of $5.5 billionhalf a . Cloud9 recently announced a major apparel partnership with Puma, releasing their first collection in October 2019. With esports events like the 2019 League of Legends World Championships bringing in almost four million concurrent viewers across Twitch and YouTube, its no surprise that competitive gaming is now a multi-million dollar industry, and shows no signs of slowing down. The multiple titles approach has allowed Liquid to maintain its elite presence in esports having been the No. Until finalized, we cant comment on specifics., Lance Skundrich/Riot Games Inc. via Getty Images. Before the halt of Dota events, Virtus.pro was able to take home more than $472K in winnings by playing in various tournaments including EPIC League and winning ESL One Los Angeles. The team won the Dota Asia Championships a month later. The ad-supported app, which has 10 million active monthly users and offers playing analysis and training sessions, now accounts for half of the companys $45 million in revenue. The ESPN cover boy has 3.5 million followers on Twitter, 19 million subscribers for his YouTube channel and 11 million on Twitch.TV, and has showed up on mainstream talk shows including Ellen. Their breakthrough came in the Frankfurt Major 2015, where they defeated Evil Geniuses, CDEC Gaming, and Team Secret. A surprisingly large number of people compete in eSports teams to earn their living. Her new Redebut 2D model, which she unveiled on January 10, 2022, has received praise from her followers in particular.Shylily merch plush. In 2021, the total market value of the eSports industry hit the $1 billion mark. The esports companies that end up winning this shootout will likely be those that have arenas and multiple teams in multiple leagues. The No. At present, teams from the organization compete in CS:GO, Dota 2, League of Legends, and Hearthstone. It was also a signal that the esports industry had resumed its ascent after a couple of years in which team values had largely flatlined. Disney's Marvel 10. After his big win in 2014, Zai's team won 2 tournaments back-to-back and earned around $1.2 million dollars. Founder and former player Andy Dinh has plans for TSM to be the Dallas Cowboys of esports. The company, which has offices in both Los Angeles and the Netherlands and is considered especially brand-safe for advertisers, is diversifying in several directions at once. Theyre still newbies, as far as this list is concerned, making their winnings from a mere 50 tournaments particularly impressive. The Premier League and Electronic Arts are reportedly nearing an extension doubling. Steve Aoki An incredibly interesting figure, this EDM musician, DJ, and producer is no stranger to technology. Its a page borrowed from FaZe Clans playbook. More recently, the team bagged the 2018 Demacia Cup Winter and came in at second place in the 2019 Spring Split regular season. The deal covers multiple Disney-controlled networks including ESPN, Disney XD and ABC. In 2016, he also became the vice-chairman and partner of the Oilers Entertainment Group . This would give the team a bye all the way into Winners Round 3 where it would face off against the, , which it eventually defeated 3-2. Indeed the most lucrative game by far is Dota, and variations thereof. When FaZe Clan, the esports and entertainment company with a rock-star image and a cavalcade of celebrity partners, revealed in October that it planned to go public through a SPAC merger, the announcement came with a bold claim: that FaZe was already worth $650 million and would reach $1 billion with the money it raised in the deal. That stratospheric valuationcomparable to MLBs Miami Marlins or the NHLs Detroit Red Wingsblew past the $305 million that Forbes had estimated FaZe Clan was worth just ten months earlier. The Los Angeles-based company generates 80% of its $40 million in revenue by focusing on creating videos around gaming culture and its stars. While many companies are expanding beyond esports, Forbes chose not to consider for this ranking Luminosity Gaming parent Enthusiast Gaming, which derives just 3% of its revenue from esports, according to its filings as a public company. League the team took home a cool $900K to go along with its winnings from the various tournaments during league play. Team Liquid began as a gaming community website. The team primarily plays in Dota 2 eSports tournaments, with its total prize money won throughout its. In addition, 100 Thieves is dipping its toes into traditional sports; in November, it signed YouTube stars 2Hype, who have amassed a following of 18 million subscribers through their basketball-themed challenge videos. Sam and Anne Mathews (son and mother) founded Fnatic in 2004, as they saw the potential future for eSports. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. If youre interested in selling products, becoming an Amazon influencer can be a good 2023 is shaping up to be a big year for advanced RFP software solutions. Natus Vincere ( Na'Vi) No. Team Liquid (Valued $320 million)1. (Joint) Misfits Gaming (Valued $120 million)11. He was the owner of the eSports franchise Echo Fox until his departure from the franchise in October 2019. . We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Tundra doing well by winning over 40.00% of their recent matches. Sumails father gained a job in the USA, and Sumail joined Evil Geniuses in January 2015. Carlos ocelote Rodrguez ability to develop competitive teams in multiple titles helped propel G2 Esports to No. Enthusiast Gaming is ranked for the first time. But having a rich owner can change that. Earnings in million U.S. dollars. This resulted in winnings of $5 million, giving it the Guinness World Record for most prize earnings at the time. 1 ranking on this list, this is the first time that a single Call of Duty match was the catalyst behind the No. FaZe Clan (Valued $240 million)3. The organization have dominated League of Legends in the United States, winning three consecutive splits, and secured three top 4 finishes at the last three Dota 2 The International tournaments. For Spacestation, it was its. While it is typical in esports that one event, such as the Dota 2 International, is usually the cause of a teams No. Some of the gap was filled with its higher-margin online content business, including sponsored streams on Twitch and videos on YouTube. Team Liquid, owned by aXiomatic Gaming, is the third-most valuable esports company at $440 million. Paid subscriptions are also a great way for streamers to bring in revenue. Their most successful player, Sumail Hassan, began his successful Dota playing days in Pakistan. G2 Esports (Valued $165 million)8. The other focus for the company, which has offices in Seoul, Shanghai and Santa Monica, California, is its coaching platform, which launched last year and has already enrolled thousands of students in Asia, Gen.G says. The esports team was founded in the Netherlands back in 2000. On June 10, 2021, FaZe Clan became the first esports team to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. TSM was playing chess while some were playing other esports titles. 7. Soon after, Quickens Rocket Mortgage came along with a seven-figure sponsorship and branded itself around the companys seven-bedroom mansion in Venice, California. Fnatic has assembled dedicated teams for a range of games, including Dota 2, Hearthstone, and League of Legends. A chunk of that will go toward building a 20,000-to-30,000-square-foot training facility and home base for its operations in Los Angeles, scheduled to open in 2019. The favorite for this one looks to be Tundra Esports with maximum odd of 1.66 offered by Pinnacle. NRG Esports already owned the San Francisco Shock OWL team, but its their acquisition of former OpTic Gaming chief Hector H3CZ Rodriguez that really turned heads among the gaming community. Worth an estimated $210 million, Immortals Gaming Club made headline news in June 2018 when it was announced that they had acquired OpTic Gaming, who will compete for IGC in the 2020 Call of Duty League. 8. Earlier rankings relied on capital raises and asset sales, which were limited in 2020; the sole major transaction was the sale of IGCs CDL franchise to 100 Thieves at cost. eSports salaries vary by team and players. The organization also brought home more than $25K from Fortnite and $4.6K in Electronic Arts Apex Legends. gfinity.net. It covers games ranging from Super Smash Bros to Hearthstone and Vainglory, and their management team is bigger than many teams' entire roster. Team Liquid became part of the entertainment and sports management company, aXiomatic, in 2016. Comcast Xfinity 3. FaZe finished the regular season as the No. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. TSM's League of Legends team is one of the most successful in the game. Team Liquid belongs on any list featuring the biggest or best esports organizations. The team decided not to spend the reported $20 million required to own a Call of Duty League franchise, but compete in the LCS, CS:GO and Fortnite, with their revenue believed to sit around $10 million. team that carried the day, winning two out of the four events they played in, taking home $1.1M in prize money. And while team sponsorships can be lucrative, other revenue streams often have low margins. This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Electronic Arts has lowered its full-year revenue guidance. He has sponsorships with Samsung, Red Bull and Uber Eats. Gen.G is a Korean-based organization but have spread their wings over the last few years and entered the American market with huge success throughout 2018 and 2019. You are here: There are some similarities to traditional sports leagues. 68 - 46 = 22, so the average value of the non-USP guns would need to be (22 / 3) 7.33 or more for this to make sense. While Natus Vincere is now a Dota 2 and World of Tanks team, the outfit banded together to focus on winning Counter-Strike competitions. Image credit: Roman Kosolapov. And unlike, say, Major League Soccerwhich has sold teams at similarly high multiplesesports has a colossal audience; the industry just has to find a way to monetize all those eyeballs. The Shock ultimately defeated the Seoul Dynasty in the finals 4-2 to take home the lions share of the prize money. Cloud9 & Team SoloMid (Tied) - $583.8 million Cloud9 Franchise League (s) - Team (s): LCS - Cloud9, Overwatch - London Spitfire Cloud9 Non-franchise Teams: CS:GO, Fortnite, Hearthstone, PUBG, Rainbow Six, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros, Teamfight Tactics, WoW A single tournament can yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money, but almost all of it goes to the players. 2019 - Present Team: TSM Approx. Theres not going to be one thing in gaming making you money.. All others in the ranking are private companies. nc. By 2020, four of the top 10 were valued at more than $300 million. Sources include news articles, forum posts, live report threads, interviews, official statements, reliable databases, VODs and other publicly-accessable sources that preserve "historical" information. At well over $36 million winnings from nearly 2000 tournaments, they are by far the most . Valued at $190 million, 100 Thieves jumps to the fifth spot on our list, from No. Dutch-founded organization and North American basedTeam Liquid take third place in the rankings, with a $320 million valuation. Regarded by many as a team synonymous with League of Legends, TSM also boast a mindblowing $400 million valuation, and it comes as no surprise that they operate one of the 12 LCS teams in North America. At this stage, most are trying to find their way around the maze, with some stuck on a hamster wheel. The New York Knicks headline nine hoops teams in the top 50 this year. Dota 2 is one of the most featured games and also one most eSports teams have made big bucks playing. U.S. Air Force 8. These cookies do not store any personal information. Team Liquid began as a gaming community website and forum founded in 1998, but it truly started its rise to the top of the eSports world when it began sponsoring a Starcraft: Brood War team in 2010. Andy recused himself from any oversight of the scope, nature and conclusions of the investigation. Mercedes Benz Esports: The Next Big Thing? By Forbes calculations, excluding ad share revenue paid to talenta figure excluded from revenue estimates reported by other companies on the listEnthusiast Gaming is worth 5.5 times revenue. The Dallas Cowboys are easily the most valuable sports franchise in the world. (Picture: Forbes) The statistic at the top of the chart is . FaZe Clan announced plans in October 2021 to go public through a merger with blank-check company B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp., valuing the combined entity at $1 billion. Riot Games and its League of Legends World Championship along with Activision Blizzards Overwatch and Call of Duty League Championships were the big money drivers in 2020 and did esports a great service by finding ways to keep the esports competitive scene moving. This is in stark contrast to the $753K the organization took home in 2019, and the $524K in 2018. FaZe Clan is a popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gaming team. We take a look at the top 10 richest eSports teams in history. A year ago, esports companieswhich play competitive versions of games like Fortnite and Call of Duty, sometimes in front of crowds of 40,000 or morewere gushing about war chests; oversubscribed funding rounds; celebrity investors like Drake, Stephen Curry and Jennifer Lopez; and a future that would see gaming teams eclipsing NFL teams in monetary value. 7 on the list. Paris Saint-Germain Esports 10. League of Legends also made up a large portion of the organizations 2020 winnings, with Fnatic taking home $214K, with $101K of that coming from its 5th-8th finish at the World Championships. They also operate in games like Fortnite, Smite, and StarCraft 2, and according to Forbes, their estimated revenue sits at $5 million, with a total valuation of $120 million. Team Liquid 2. Top 100 Highest Overall Earnings - Esports Player Rankings :: Esports Earnings Player Rankings Highest Overall Earnings Highest Single Game Earnings Highest Earnings By Country Highest Earnings By Age Most Tournament Results Last 30 Days Last 90 Days Last 365 Days Female Players Console Players Fighting Game Players 6 this year. Alongside N0tail, the TI-winning OG lineup are the all-time top-earning esports players: Johan "N0tail" Sundstein ($6.9 million) Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka ($6.5 million) Anathan "ana" Pham ($6.0 million) Sebastian "Ceb" Debs ($5.5 million) Topias Miikka "Topson" Taavitsainen ($5.5 million) But while money is pouring into the metaverseFortnite publisher Epic Games announced last month that it had raised $1 billion in funding to support its metaverse initiativethose days are a long ways off, and game makers are in no rush to cede control.