Tencent to Launch Fortnite Battle Royale in China and Invest in Esports Scene

The Chinese video game giant will be launching Fortnite Battle Royale in the region and is investing heavily into developing the title's esports scene.

According to a report from Chinese news outlet Donews, Tencent, the Chinese video game conglomerate, will be launching Fortnite Battle Royale in the region and is set to invest $15,000,000 into developing the esports scene of the title. The announcement was made during a live presentation by the company Monday, April 23rd. The multi-million dollar investment will be used to promote the game to its domestic audience, establish domestic and global esports events for Fortnite in the country and enlisting the services of popular content creators to produce video content of the game.

In addition to the promotional campaign planned for Epic Games' massively popular battle royale title, Tencent announced the official Chinese Fortnite website where players in the region will be able to go to to download the game when it is released and unique in-game items to players who sign up and pre-order a spot on the Chinese server before the title's release. Chinese users who have been playing the game on servers outside of the country will also be able to transfer all of their progress to a Chinese account.

Tencent will be pulling out all of the stops in its promotion of Fortnite and its esports scene in China. (Source: Sheng Yi)

With Tencent already owning the rights to Player Unknowns Battlegrounds in China, the company is now ready to capitlaize on the latest giant of the battle royale genre with their launch of Fortnite in the region, as the title has quickly become one of the most profitable games in the industry.

In addition to the game's profitability on its own, the title's competitive scene is also growing with the first live esports event for the title taking place this past weekend. Ninja Vegas '18, created in partnership between Tyler "Ninja" Belvins and the Esports Arena Las Vegas, featured the popular Twitch streamer going up against over 225 challengers in nine live games with a prize pool of $50,000. The event was able to reach a peak audience of 680,000 concurrent viewers, which broke Ninja's previous channel record of 635,000 viewers. Tencent will be looking to establish a similar popularity in Fortnite's esports scene in China with its investment.

(cover photo courtesy of Donews)

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