With his “super studio,” Typical Gamer seeks a piece of the $320 million ‘Fortnite’ market

Add Andre Rebelo to the list of creators who are seeing dollar signs within the world of Fortnite. The streamer known as Typical Gamer has announced JOGO, a self-proclaimed “super studio” that will invest $2 million to develop custom Fortnite experiences.

Rebelo, who counts 14.5 million subscribers on YouTube, is one of the highest-earning creators of custom maps — or “islands,” as they’re known — within Fortnite. His islands have attracted 44 million unique players, who have collectively delivered 200 million plays. With JOGO, Rebelo will level up his Fortnite production. The studio intends to eventually expand into original IP.

In an interview with Variety, Rebelo said that he and his team have been “covertly” working on JOGO for “about a year.” The company currently employs more than 20 people, with Rebelo serving as CEO alongside COO Chad Mustard and CTO Mark Price. The current plan is to bring the JOGO workforce up to 35-40 people, with specialized divisions for experimental Fortnite development and talent incubation.

“We want to make the most fun games in Fortnite and also to expand beyond that to create our own IP that can live in movies and television shows and maybe other UGC platforms or as standalone games themselves,” Rebelo told Variety. “JOGO at its core is a gaming company that wants to make the best games possible.”

JOGO is looking to grab a slice of the exploding Fortnite creator economy, and the company has already gotten a head start toward that goal. When Epic Games revealed that it paid creators $320 million in 2023 through the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, Rebelo’s name popped up among the top earners. He placed 15th on that list with more than $3 million in total revenue.

As big as the Fortnite market is, it is dwarfed by the equivalent Roblox program, which paid out $741 million to creators in 2023. The game creation gold rush has already led to the launch of several creator-adjacent development studios. Karl Jacobs and KreekCraft have teamed up with Misfits Gaming to launch a venture called Pixel Playground, and esports firm GameSquare is building “metaverse-style games” out of a division named Moonlight Studios.

JOGO will look into games like Roblox and Grand Theft Auto as it expands its studio operations, but Rebelo has a special connection with Epic Games’ popular battle royale title. Years before he invested in island development, he made a name for himself as a high-stakes Fortnite player. With JOGO, he’s out to prove he has the business acumen to go along with his (atypical) gaming skills.