--- title: Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Kids Can Level Up description: The wildly popular online game Fortnite has parents shelling out for coaches to help their kids improve in their play. canonical: https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-01T14:53:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:54:06.144Z og:title: Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Kids Can Level Up og:description: Fortnite is so popular that parents are paying for coaches for their kids og:url: https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3230faf1ef7ba67/69892b9dcf40a832b9c4bbab/180322-fortnite.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7680 og:image:height: 4320 og:image:alt: fortnite og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Kids Can Level Up twitter:description: Fortnite is so popular that parents are paying for coaches for their kids twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3230faf1ef7ba67/69892b9dcf40a832b9c4bbab/180322-fortnite.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Their Gamer Kids Can Level Up > Sponsored content. 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In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 1, 2018 2:53 PM UTC  (Courtesy of Epic Games)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Aug 1, 2018 2:53 PM UTC Step aside, math tutors: parents are looking to hire experts with a new kind of experience to instruct their kids. According to a new story in the [_Wall Street Journal_](https://www.wsj.com/articles/ready-aim-hire-a-fortnite-coach-parents-enlist-videogame-tutors-for-their-children-1533046708?mod=e2tw), some families are shelling out for [Fortnite](http://time.com/money/5341332/fortnite-creator-tim-sweeney-net-worth/) coaches to help their children win at the [wildly popular](http://time.com/5237213/fortnite-ios-iphone-downloads-clash-of-clans-candy-crush-and-pokemon-go/) online game, paying as much as $50 an hour for video game pros to give their kids a boost at tactics and skills in their virtual combat. Fortnite first took gamers — of both the casual and expert variety — by storm when it came out in September 2017; some sites put the Epic Games creation at as many as [125 million players](https://www.pcgamesn.com/fortnite/fortnite-battle-royale-player-numbers) globally by this summer. The mobile version even [out-earned](http://time.com/5237213/fortnite-ios-iphone-downloads-clash-of-clans-candy-crush-and-pokemon-go/) other popular games on mobile like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans within its first three weeks on the market, and expert players began [raking in cash](http://time.com/money/5201106/ninja-fortnite-money-stream-twitch/) for their advanced approach. Now, it’s become such a social phenomenon amongst all ages that even young kids are needing to get their status up on the game, prompting parents to consider buying the time of those coaches, which can be sought out on social media or on sites like [Gamer Sensei](https://www.gamersensei.com/) and Bidvine, as the WSJ [reports](https://www.wsj.com/articles/ready-aim-hire-a-fortnite-coach-parents-enlist-videogame-tutors-for-their-children-1533046708). A quick perusal of Gamer Sensei [suggests](https://www.gamersensei.com/senseis/searches?sort%5Fby=relevance&game=fortnite&page=1) you can book a lesson for as little as $7.50 an hour, although you’ll probably want to spend up to achieve winning results. (And for some parents, apparently, the coaches are helping them keep up with their kids.) The upside: winning can bring in big bucks. The downside: looks like those old-school math tutors have some competition — until school starts up again in the fall, anyway. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/"},"headline":"Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Their Gamer Kids Can Level Up","datePublished":"2018-08-01T14:53:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:54:06.144Z","description":"SAT tutors are so last year","url":"https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Video Games","Technology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3230faf1ef7ba67/69892b9dcf40a832b9c4bbab/180322-fortnite.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf3230faf1ef7ba67/69892b9dcf40a832b9c4bbab/180322-fortnite.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"fortnite","caption":"Coaches Show Kids Fortnite","creditText":"(Courtesy of Epic Games)","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5355005/fortnite-coaches-kids/","name":"Parents Are Paying Fortnite Coaches So Their Gamer Kids Can Level Up"}}]}] ```