Skillz Doubles Revenue Run-Rate to $100M+ in Eight Months
Skillz, the worldwide leader in mobile eSports, today announced that it has doubled its revenue run-rate to over $100 million in the past eight months. It took more than 36 months for Skillz to generate its first $50 million in run-rate, and only eight months to generate an additional $50 million, demonstrating the company’s accelerated growth and staying power in the rapidly expanding eSports market.
According to Activate, eSports will be a $5 billion global business by 2020. Skillz has been a contributing force for the industry’s growth, accounting for an increasingly larger portion of eSports prizes awarded each year. In 2014, Skillz awarded 8 percent of all eSports prizes, with that figure increasing to over 21 percent in 2015. After initially projecting that the company would account for over 30 percent in 2016, Skillz exceeded expectations, finishing the year at over 46 percent of all eSports prizes. This success was driven by growth in Skillz users and heightened player engagement.
Skillz strives to bring eSports to the mass market by expanding the category beyond an audience that is 85 percent male, according to SuperData Research. Since June 2016, the Skillz user base has grown by more than 32 percent to 11.9 million. While acquiring almost three million additional players, Skillz also increased its number of female players from 49 percent of the company’s user base in June 2016 to 53 percent today. This marks the first time that the majority of the Skillz user base has been female.
The company has also seen its average player spend an increasing number of minutes competing in mobile eSports tournaments on the Skillz platform. In June 2016, the average Skillz player competed for over 50 minutes per day. By October 2016, that average increased to 58 minutes a day. As of March 2017, engagement increased again to over 61 minutes a day, a gain of over 5 percent, which pushes Skillz past the coveted one-hour daily engagement mark. By comparison, people spend 40 minutes a day on YouTube, 35 minutes a day on Facebook, and 25 minutes a day on Snapchat.
“The rapid and immense growth in revenue and players on the Skillz platform shows that the mobile eSports industry is not just the future, it’s here now,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and founder of Skillz. “We awarded over $5 million in prizes in March alone, proving that mobile eSports are truly crossing the chasm to the mass market.”
For more information on Skillz-enabled games and implementing mobile eSports competitions, visit www.skillz.com or email [email protected].
About Skillz
Skillz is the leading mobile eSports platform, connecting the world’s 2.6 billion mobile gamers through competition. As the eSports provider for over 3,000 game studios, Skillz accounted for more than 46 percent of all eSports prizes awarded in 2016 while broadcasting over 40 million minutes of gameplay to spectators worldwide. Skillz makes games better by powering the competitions that players love and giving developers the chance to turn their game into the next great electronic sport. Founded in 2012, Skillz is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading venture capitalists as well as the owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Mets. To learn more, visit www.skillz.com.
