Next level

18 January 2019 By Robyn Mak Follow @mak_robyn

The video game may have raked in as much as $2.4 bln in sales last year, more than any 2018 Hollywood blockbuster. Now Netflix says it is threatened too. Success comes from mass appeal: both young and old gamers are hooked. Streaming giants and movie outfits are right to be alarmed.

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Streaming giant Netflix reported quarterly revenue below Wall Street estimates on Jan. 17. In a letter to shareholders, it cited video game Fortnite as one of its less traditional competitors: "We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO".

Fortnite made $2.4 billion in revenue in 2018, according to industry research firm SuperData. The free-to-play shooter game is developed by U.S.-based Epic Games, which counts Disney and Chinese gaming company Tencent as backers.

In October, private-equity firm KKR, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others invested $1.25 billion in Epic Games. The investment valued the company at $15 billion, the Wall Street Journal Reported at the time, citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the company, nearly 80 million people played Fortnite in August 2018.

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