Gamers aren’t the only ones making money off Fortnite — so is its owner, Tim Sweeney.
The CEO of Cary-based Epic Games, the company behind the popular online video game, has landed on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans for the first time. The magazine placed Sweeney at the 150th spot with an etimated net worth of $4.5 billion.
Tim Sweeney
“Sweeney founded video game company Epic Games in 1991 in his parents’ house and released the game ZZT at age 21,” Forbes reports.
“Today over 250 million people, mostly boys ages 10 to 25, have played his game Fortnite since it launched in July 2017. The company held the finals for its inaugural Fortnite World Cup in July at New York City’s Arthur Ashe Stadium, where finalists competed for more than $30 million in prize money. A 16-year-old took home the top prize of $3 million. Epic Games pulled in a reported $2.4 billion in 2018 revenue; Sweeney owns an estimated one third of the company.”
Also on the list are two other North Carolinians:
- SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, No. 77 with a net worth of $7.2 billion
- SAS co-founder John Sall, No. 225 at $3.6 billion
MacKenzie Bezos also entered the list for the first time, landing at the 15th spot. Her net worth is estimated at $36 billion.
She became an instant billionaire following her divorce from Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos in July. As part of the settlement, she received 25% of the couple’s Amazon stock, according to an April securities filing. That gave her a 4% stake in the company, worth approximately $38 billion.
Jeff Bezos remains in the top slot for a second straight year, with an estimated net worth of $114 billion. That’s down from the $160 billion in 2018.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates placed second ($106 billion net worth), investor Warren Buffett is third ($80 billion net worth) and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in fourth place with a net worth nearly $70 billion.
The highest-ranking woman, Alice Walton, is at 11th place. She’s part of the family behind Walmart, she’s worth roughly $51 billion.
The threshold to enter the list this year is $2.1 billion, the same as last year. Forbes said the collective net worth of everyone on the list is worth a record-breaking $2.96 trillion, up more than 2% from last year.
Forbes said the list is compiled by reading “thousands of SEC documents, court records, probate records and news articles.” The estimates also take into account each person’s stakes in companies and other assets, like property.
This year, President Donald Trump fell 16 places and now ranks at 275 with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion. He’s fallen 119 places on the list since becoming president, according to Forbes.
Forbes said the list is compiled by reading “thousands of SEC documents, court records, probate records and news articles.” The estimates also take into account each person’s stakes in companies and other assets, like property.
The Forbes 400 list came under fire two years ago over its reporting on the wealth of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. Financial disclosure forms filed after Ross’ nomination to the Commerce Department showed he had less than $700 million in assets, far lower than the $2.9 billion Forbes had listed as his net worth a year earlier.
In a previous statement to CNN, Forbes defended the magazine’s reporting methods, but acknowledged that others have lied in an effort to crack the list.
