FaZe Clan member Nordan “Rain” Shat shared how much the organization spends on its esports teams, claiming that FaZe loses $318,000 a month on its VALORANT team alone.
In a video published on May 24, he revealed how much FaZe was losing running esports teams, arguing that the organization’s creators and talent aren’t paid enough compared to what they brought to the org’s identity.
Related: FaZe Clan guts nearly half of its staff just months after mass layoffs
FaZe loses $224,000 a month running VALORANT‘s male team and $94,000 with the female team, according to Rain’s numbers. He claims that the organization loses a total of $756,000 a month on esports as a whole, with VALORANT accounting for almost half of that outlay.
It’s not surprising VALORANT teams aren’t profitable yet for esports organizations. The competitive title was only released in June 2020 and has yet to become stable, while player salaries have skyrocketed due to high interest from top-tier esports organizations. That loss is still significant, though.
According to numbers shared in the video, only PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty are profitable, although Atlanta FaZe is a partnership between the org and Atlanta Esports Ventures, and not solely owned by FaZe. PUBG Mobile brings in $87,000 a month, with a monthly cost of $37,000, which is less than most other teams.
CS:GO, Halo Infinite, and PUBG all cause around a $70,000 monthly loss to FaZe. “We are negative $756,000 a month on esports. And they made that guy President,” shouted Rain in the video. “It’s so crazy, the way they have manipulated and lied for so long, and a lot of us just kinda went with this because we love FaZe so much.”
Rain refers to Erik Anderson, who was promoted from Head of Esports to President a day before FaZe conducted mass layoffs, releasing 40 percent of its staff months after other layoffs. Rain has been critical of the financial decisions made by the organization, which invested a lot in esports and NICKMERCS, while leaving many talents on the sidelines.
“If everyone else was treated fairly, sure,” he said regarding NICKMERCS’ yearly salary of $1M. “But it’s so insane to think that someone as impactful as Rug, Alex, Teeqo, people that have been such a big part of FaZe’s identity get nothing.”
The organization has yet to respond to the backlash it received regarding NICKMERCS’ salary and recent layoffs.
