A 16-year-old gamer known as Bugha has won the first Fortnite World Cup and will take home $4.3 million for his efforts, more than Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep received for winning Wimbledon this year.
American Kyle Giersdorf, as he is called in real life, claimed first place in the solo finals of the tournament, held in Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York, to claim the glory and the cash — out of a total prize pool of $43 million.
In the duos championship, the European team of Nyhrox (Emil Bergquist) and Aqua (David W) outpointed their opponents to also win a $4.3 million pot, this time to be split between them.
Fortnite is a "battle royale" style video game which is free to play and has become a worldwide phenomenon since it was released by Epic Games in 2017.
Its simple, addictive format has seen it reportedly generate billions of dollars for its developer, according to a TechCrunch report.
While it is free to download, players pay for character add-ons, such as special victory dances and new skins.
The game has over 200 million players worldwide, according to Epic.
Characters are dropped into a battlefield with 99 others, initially equipped with just a pickaxe, and must scavenge materials and weapons to help them take down their opponents.
The last one standing wins.
The inaugural World Cup of Fortnite was announced by Epic in June, 2018, with qualification beginning in April of this year.
Players earned points in singles or duos weekly tournaments, and those with the highest totals were invited to the event.
"I'm just so happy," Giersdorf said after being proclaimed world champion.
"Everything I've done, the grind, it's all paid off. It's just insane."
In both the solo and duos, players competed in six games, with the highest points earner at the end declared the winner.
Giersdorf won the first of the six then placed high enough in the following five games to easily maintain his lead throughout, scoring 59 points in total, 26 more than second-place-getter Psalm.
Epic said more than 40 million players participated in the qualifying events across the globe.
Djokovic and Halep each took home $US2.98 million for winning Wimbledon, slightly less than Gioersdorf's $US3 million payday.
