In May 2019, word broke that his mother took Benjy “benjyfishy” Fish, then 15-year-old Briton, out of school so he could focus on the online game of Fortnite, which was so popular at the time. We look at MeinMMO: How did the then 15-year-old fare in the last 3 years?
This was the story then: In May 2019, Fortnite was the biggest game in the world, the $30 million World Cup was coming up. Nevertheless, the mother’s decision was controversial at the time.
The mother decided: her son should no longer attend normal classes, but should be home-schooled. In 3 years he should learn the material there that he should have learned in school in 2 years.
The trigger for the decision was that the boy had won €11,300 in an online tournament. Because he mostly played Fortnite at night with friends from the USA, he was often tired at school, so his mother decided to take him out of school.
A dream come true for the 15-year-old, who said he wants to buy his mum a house if he cashes in at the Fortnite World Cup.
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Esports athletes make half a million dollars at 15 and 16, after which prize money dries up
How much money has he made from esports? benjyfishy’s esports career in Fortnite has now netted him $570,256, with the majority of that money being made by the age of 15/16 (via esportsearnings). Although he was only able to bag the consolation prize twice at the World Championships (25th place in singles, 14th place in duos brought him $ 50,000 each), but otherwise a lot came together:
The sharp drop in prize money is due to the fact that Fortnite is no longer as lucrative in 2022 as it was in 2019, but also because benjyfishy has lost interest in the game.
The prize money in Fortnite collapsed.
Junge first criticizes the low prize money in Fortnite, then announces the end of his career
This is how love died out by benjyfishy to Fortnite:
At Valorant, however, benjyfishy has not yet won any prize money.
15-year-old leaves school, becomes a professional in Fortnite – now says: “E-sport is dying”
Pro is building a large Twitch channel, but viewers are disappearing with the desire for Fortnite
How else is he doing? In addition to his career as an e-sportsman, benjyfishy also built up a large Twitch channel during his time in Fortnite: Here he has 3.9 million followers.
But here, too, he realizes that the Fortnite hype is over:
Decision was lucrative – but career looked better at 16 than at 18
So was the decision worth it? What is clear is that benjyfishy made a lot of money in the Fortnite wedding and the mother’s decision probably paid off back in 2019 when he bagged some hefty prize money.
In the years that followed, he laid the foundation for a successful career in gaming.
But the numbers also make it clear that the whole thing is not a sure-fire success. benjyfishy’s career is inextricably linked to Fortnite.
And if he doesn’t play the game, the number of viewers also dwindles: Many Fortnite streamers have had this experience, especially Ninja, who mutated from a megastar and the biggest gamer in the world in 2018 into a pretty normal Twitch streamer.
It is questionable whether benjyfishy will really succeed in building on the successes of the past in a new game like Valorant.
In the short term, the mother’s decision to take the 15-year-old out of school paid off financially – but the young man’s career looked much better at 16 than at 18. You have to say that dryly.
benjyfishy may have made the journey to pro gamer worth it, but not every esports prodigy does. Hardly anyone has heard of Crimz, whom his father raised to be a pro gamer, in recent years:
Fortnite instead of school: father raises son to be a pro gamer since he was 3