It's hard to earn a participation trophy in a video game — particularly in the massively multiplayer online battle game, Fortnite — so parents are paying as much as $20 per hour to hire personal video game coaches to help their kids work on their skills.
According to the Wall Street Journal, there are more than 1,400 Fortnite coaches available for hire, most advertising on social media, including on the video game-centric social network, Twitch. For a three-to-four hour lesson, coaches can charge an average of $20 per hour, or $50 for a full, afternoon-long training session.
In some cases, parents are even hiring the coaches for themselves, so they can see what the fury surrounding the epic "battle royale" game is all about (and so they can go toe-to-toe with their teenagers).
It may sound strange, hiring a "coach" to teach a kid how to play a game that involves nearly no physical activity, but parents don't just see personal success, they see dollar signs. Fortnite tournaments, where elite players battle each other, often in huge arenas adapted for "e-sports," can earn winners upwards of $100,000.
One Fortnite streamer, codenamed "Ninja," reportedly nets $500,000 every six months between tournament wins, sponsorships, and advertising sales. E-sports arenas are cropping up across the globe, and some of the top tier players — not just of Fortnite, but of other massively multiplayer online games like "League of Legends" — are expected to out-earn some professional athletes within the next several years.
So, consider it less training kids to beat their friends, and more training them for future high-earning careers, much like you would invest in a child who showed promise in athletics. Only this time, the kids typically picked last for sports teams might be able to capitalize on their own unique talents.
Ed. note: The original version of this story credited GameRant for the study, however the real credit goes to the Wall Street Journal. We've updated the story accordingly.
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