Jarvis Kaye, the professional Fortnite player and YouTuber who received a lifetime ban from the game for cheating, likely earned around £20,000 for his apology video.
Kaye, also known as FaZe Jarvis, was caught cheating after he uploaded videos that showed him using aimbots – a cheat that vastly improves the accuracy of a person’s shot.
The 17-year-old, who has more than 2 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and more than 200,000 followers on Twitch, admitted his actions in an emotional apology video but said he never considered that his actions would lead to a ban.
You can watch the video in full below:
Since posting the video on Sunday (November 3), it has been viewed more than 6.8 million times and has attracted more than 187,000 comments. The video also has around 345,000 likes.
According to marketing and talent agency The Fifth, as per The Sun, Kaye likely earned tens of thousands of pounds from the short clip alone. ‘A safe guess is between the two figures $25,000 and $36,000 (£19,000 and £28,000),’ a spokesperson explained.
However, the spokesperson added the real figure could be ‘way higher’, closer to $50,000 (£39,000) depending on factors such as video retention, geography, and the quality of viewers.
The Sun also spoke to influencer marketing agency Pro Seeders, which estimated the video would have made between £11,500 and £15,500 in ad revenue alone. Digital marketers at London’s Fusion Media, who use earnings-estimation tool SocialBlade, guess Kaye made around £21,000 from the clip, or at least £2,600 in a worst-case scenario.
It’s impossible to say exactly how much the former Fortnite player will earn from the video, because the pay-outs are based on ad engagement rather than views, so marketers have to make estimates based on data they already hold.
Regardless, the money he makes from the video is unlikely to match up to his Fortnite earnings, with the teenager believed to have amassed an estimated £2 million fortune through his YouTube channel.
Despite Kaye apologising to the game’s developer, Epic Games, and asking it to reconsider his ban, saying he knows ‘how big of a mistake’ he made, the company have since doubled down on their ban.
Epic GamesA spokesperson for Epic Games explained it has a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ for the usage of cheat software, before adding cheaters like Kaye ‘ruin games’ for everyone else playing fairly.
Some of the YouTuber’s fans have already voiced their support for Jarvis, starting the hashtag #FreeJarvis in an attempt to get Epic Games to change its mind.
However, that could all be futile if Fortnite’s creator stays true to its word.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).