Skillz Doubles in 5 Months: Now $400 Million Revenue Run-Rate
Record Growth Fueled by 5,000 New Developer Partners
Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, announced today that it has doubled its revenue run-rate from $200 million in February to $400 million as of the end of July, only five months later. The company now runs over two million tournaments a day, double the volume from its last financial announcement in April.
The platform now powers eSports competitions for 13,000 game studios, nearly double the 8,000 studios announced in April 2018. With more than 18 million players, Skillz has awarded over $300 million in prizes and has hosted over 800 million tournaments. The past 5 months have marked record growth for Skillz, as the company awarded over $100 million in prizes across nearly half a billion competitions.
With eSports awareness expected to reach 2 billion people by 2021, eSports industry revenue is continuing to grow steadily in volume. Leading investment group Goldman Sachs recently projected eSports revenue to reach $3 billion by 2022. The Goldman Sachs report expects prize pools to grow 30% year-over-year for each of the next five years.
With eSports like Dota 2 awarding $25 million this year in its largest prize pool to date, eSports prizes are rapidly surpassing those of offline sporting events such as the U.S. Open golf tournament and the Daytona 500 NASCAR race. Skillz itself currently awards $20 million in prizes each month – 10x the amount of prizes it awarded monthly in 2016.
“The Skillz platform capitalizes on the phenomenal growth of eSports,” says Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “We are the first company to democratize eSports for players and game developers, and the first company to do it at scale.”
In addition to doubling its revenue run-rate for the second time this year, the company also recently hosted the largest solitaire tournament in history, awarding $100,000 in prizes to the top 1,000 mobile solitaire players in the world.
“Skillz has been relentless in its mission to shape the future of eSports,” says Ryan Moore, founder of leading venture capital firm Accomplice. “Not only has Skillz laid the foundation for mobile eSports, it has been one of the primary driving forces for the industry’s meteoric growth.”
About Skillz
Skillz, the leading mobile eSports platform, connects the world’s 2.6 billion mobile gamers through competition. In 2017, Skillz was named the #1 fastest-growing private company in America by Inc. Magazine, the first eSports company on CNBC’s Disruptor 50, and the only eSports company on the San Francisco Business Times Fast 100. Over 18 million gamers use Skillz to compete in mobile games across 13,000+ game studios. Founded in 2012, Skillz is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading venture capitalists as well as the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Mets and Sacramento Kings. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.