Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says his company can be the next Facebook or Google, citing the explosive growth of the video game company’s Fortnite.
“We feel the game industry is changing in some major ways,” Sweeney told Variety. “Fortnite is a harbinger of things to come. It’s a massive number of people all playing together, interacting together, not just playing but socializing.”
Just last month, a record 10.7 million people logged onto Fortnite for a virtual Marshmello concert. According to Business Insider, more than 250 million players have registered accounts. Gamers have been forming communities within video games like Minecraft for years, but Fortnite‘s free battle royal game play has gone viral in the past couple years.
Fortnite: Battle Royale reportedly earned the company more than $1 billion through in-game purchases, and Epic Games has plans to expand ventures with a digital storefront. According to Variety, the company’s Unreal Engine—used to by developers to create games or special effects—has 7.5 milllion installs.
Sweeney wants to seize this momentum for further growth.
“Even with our game engine, our business with the Epic Game Store, we’re still nowhere near the size of Google or Facebook. We really aspire to be that level of a supplier to the developers of the world,” Sweeney told Variety. “When you line-up Fortnite with the other things we’re doing we are a business very well positioned to do that.”