In Fortnite the player Harrison “Psalm” Chang placed second in the solo event at the World Championship, earning 1.8 million US dollars in prize money. However, a significant portion goes to the tax office. His reaction to this in an interview is delightful.
How much did Psalm win and how much does he have to pay? Psalm won 1.8 million US dollars at the Fortnite World Championship solo. That’s about 1.6 million euros.
However, about half of that goes to taxes:
- the city of New York alone, where the Fortnite World Championship took place, collects 8.82% in taxes
- then there’s the top tax rate in the US of 39.4%
Thus, he effectively hands over about half of his winnings to the state and New York.
This is how Psalm reacts: In an interview with Fox Business Network, Psalm was explicitly asked how it feels when at least 50% of the income disappears. The interviewer appears quite amused and emphasizes how high the tax rate in New York is.
Psalm grimaces, thinks for a moment, and finally says: “I love America,” then there’s a pause: “But sometimes it can be tough.”
With the money, Psalm intends to buy a house and hopes that its value will increase.
From the Hard Grind in Heroes of the Storm to Millionaire
Who is Psalm? Psalm was an outsider at the World Championship. The average age of the participating players was 16, one of the stars of the World Championship, King, was even only 13 years old. In contrast, Psalm, at 24, is well above average.
Psalm has already experienced what many competitors still have ahead of them: a career in eSports.
Originally, Psalm was a professional player of Blizzard’s MOBA “Heroes of the Storm.” He played from 2014 until the summer of 2018.
He then switched to Fortnite when eSports began to emerge there and it became clear what a hype it would be. Psalm said at that time that he believed he had what it takes to succeed in Fortnite if he gave it his all. He had a passion for the game and believed in June 2018 that it was time for a change.
This proved to be the right decision. A few months after his switch, Blizzard significantly reduced eSports for Heroes of the Storm and many HotS professionals sought new games.
During his time as a professional in Heroes of the Storm, Psalm earned about $80,000 in prize money over the years (via liquipedia.net) – in Fortnite alone at the World Championship, he secured 1.8 million US dollars. So it won’t bother him too much that a lot of that melts away.
At the World Championship, Psalm finished solidly in second place, far behind the winner Bugha, but quite successful. Bugha had to pay even more taxes than Psalm.
