Esports’ meteoric rise over the last five years has been astounding. Leading the charge is Skillz, a mobile esports platform with over 12 million active gamers. Inc. Magazine recently released its annual Inc. 5000 list, ranking the top privately held U.S. companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period, and Skillz was at the top.
That makes Andrew Paradise CEO and founder of the fastest-growing company within the fastest-growing industry. Skillz is the first esports organization to check in at No. 1.
“With over six million private companies in America, it’s a tremendous achievement to rank number one,” Paradise said in a statement. “Our growth is a testament to the hard work of the incredible Skillz team and our developer partners. Today marks a turning point in the growing dominance of eSports within the broader sports industry.”
Skillz grew over 50,000% in 3 years to earn the #1 spot on the @inc5000! Read more in this article by @pgbiz: https://t.co/1U6O7BSFXL
pic.twitter.com/tR8A14PqqU
— Skillz (@skillz) August 18, 2017
In an interview with Inc., Paradise attributed much of the success to the company’s open platform for developers. Skillz simply takes a fee that enables those developers to distribute games they’ve created.
Another feature offered by Skillz is its streaming platform. Certain streamers that meet channel-size requirements can broadcast are eligible to receive over $1,000 in giveaways for their viewers.
Topping the Inc. 5000 wasn’t the company’s first accolade this year. Back in May, Skillz was named to the CNBC Disruptor 50 list. Keeping with the common theme, it’s the first esports company ever named to the list. It’s a prestigious one, too, with companies like Airbnb, Lyft, SpaceX, Uber and Pinterest also making the cut.
“When we started in 2012, the vast majority of people had never heard of eSports,” Paradise said in a statement following the release of the Disruptor 50 list. “Now, the eSports industry continues to grow at an exponential rate to disrupt the future of sports, a three thousand year old industry and one of humanity’s oldest and most celebrated institutions.”
Skillz is backed by venture capitalists and owners of the New England Patriots, Milwaukee Bucks and New York Mets. Among the investors are Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng.