2020 has been a banner year for Travis Scott, with the Houston rapper having two number-one singles in "THE SCOTTS" and "FRANCHISE," the first celebrity-endorsed McDonald's meal since Michael Jordan in 1992 (which promptly sold out), soundtracking Christopher Nolan's Tenet, and numerous Nike sneaker releases. However, his gaming collaborations are of particular importance, especially his virtual Fortnite concert.
A recent Forbes report revealed that Scott — real name Jacques Webster II — earned roughly $20 million from the Fortnite event, a figure that is simply staggering when compared to the Grammy-nominated rapper's other income streams. For comparison, a single concert from Scott's Astroworld tour last year grossed around $1.7 million, with the full tour grossing $53.5 million. Meanwhile, his Nike deal earns him about $10 million and his McDonald's collaboration saw him pocket $5 million from the endorsement part of it, and $15 million from merchandise.
More of the creative process for the Astronomical tour was revealed, including the surprising fact that Scott never traveled out to Epic Games' Raleigh, North Carolina headquarters. Instead, company representatives were sent out to his Hollywood studio as the two parties worked on the event which included skins, emotes, and merchandise ranging from t-shirts to a Nerf gun and action figure.
Scott's Fortnite event was a huge success, with the game recording 12.3 million concurrent players at the time. With the prospect of performing live shows all but a pipe dream due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many artists took to online platforms to be able to perform. While not on the same scale as the Astronomical tour, Epic booked several other acts in Dominic Fike, Anderson .Paak, and BTS who performed via the Party Royale mode. A comparable concert could be seen with Lil Nas X performing in Roblox.
As for Scott's other gaming collaboration with PlayStation, it appears that he and Sony will be working on a few more projects. The rapper was employed as a "strategic creative partner" that saw him in an advertisement inspired by the "Blown Away Guy" Maxell commercials, a PS5 launch ad featuring him as narrator, and an "unboxing" video featuring a James Blake performance and a tribute to the late Pop Smoke.
"It's all going to roll out in the next couple of weeks," said the rapper regarding his multiyear PlayStation deal. A source told Forbes that the deal is expected to earn Scott around $20 million and could involve a co-branded console and perhaps even a Travis Scott-developed game. As of now, only the usual run of merchandise has been released. Scott is also planning to release a hard seltzer called Cacti, seen in the "FRANCHISE" music video.
Fortnite is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Forbes