The “Forbes 400” list shows the 400 richest people in America. This year, the head of Epic, Tim Sweeney, makes an appearance. The success of Fortnite and the Epic Game Store has pushed him ahead of Gabe Newell, the head of Valve and thus Steam, at least in the eyes of the journalists.
What kind of list is this? The Forbes 400 is the list of the “richest Americans.” This list is based on research by the US magazine Forbes. They say that to compile this list, they review thousands of files, court documents, and news articles.
Nevertheless, the list is ultimately based on estimates. It is a kind of high score list of US billionaires.
Sweeney makes a huge leap in 2019
How much money does Tim Sweeney have? The Epic boss Tim Sweeney is said to be worth 4.5 billion US dollars. This places him at number 150 on the list.
Epic is a company that is not publicly traded. The immense value of the company mainly comes from the success of the free-to-play shooter Fortnite.
According to Forbes, Fortnite reportedly made around 2.4 billion US dollars in revenue in 2018. Additionally, high investments from companies bolster Epic’s value – the influx started back in 2012.
Epic also operates the “Unreal Engine 4” and the Epic Games Store, a platform for PC games.
Sweeney is on the list of the richest Americans for the first time this year. A year ago, Forbes estimated his wealth at 1.8 billion US dollars. At that time, it was assumed that he held about 16% in Epic Games (via forbes).
Particularly the December 2018 brought a huge revenue boost for Fortnite. This was reported by a site that specializes in the analysis of mobile revenues.
Newell loses 2 billion in value in 2 years
How much money is Gabe Newell worth? The head of Valve and thus Steam, Gabe Newell, is said to be worth 3.5 billion US dollars. This places him at number 239.
Forbes estimates that Newell holds about 25% in Valve. Newell co-founded the company. They had initial successes with hit games like Half-Life and Portal.
But the real money comes with Steam. Forbes describes it as a kind of “iTunes of video games.”
According to Forbes’ assessment, Newell has lost quite a bit of value in recent years:
- In 2017, Newell was estimated at 5.5 billion US dollars
- In 2018 at 3.9 billion
- Now in 2019 at 3.5 billion
Forbes does not assess people on “cash,” but rather includes the company’s value in their net worth.
Who else is on the list? In the area of video games, no one else is on the list. However, some Americans have become rich through casinos and betting.
At the top are the tech giants:
- Number 1 is Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with 114 billion US dollars
- Number 2 is Microsoft boss Bill Gates with 106 billion US dollars
- In third place is investor Warren Buffet
In the top spots follow Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Larry Ellison (Oracle), and the Google duo of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
They are operating on other dimensions compared to the people who have become billionaires through video games.
Epic vs. Steam is the battle of recent months
Why is this spicy: The two men are competitors. Tim Sweeney is targeting Steam with the Epic Games Store. With exclusive titles, he aims to compete with the market leader and capture market share. Recently, for example, with Borderlands 3.
Critics say that Sweeney uses the money from Fortnite to push his technically inferior store. This behavior is also accused to Epic by competitors regarding the Unreal Engine.
Sweeney acknowledges the feature inferiority of the Epic Game Store compared to Steam but claims that the Epic Store will improve over time.
Exclusive titles are the only means to topple Steam’s quasi-monopoly, Sweeney believes. He accuses Steam of taking too high a share of revenues with 30% and thus squeezing and hindering studios.
Epic takes 12% of the revenues.
