Jacob Wolf ESPN Staff Writer 2 Minute Read

People crowd the display area for Fortnite at the 24th Electronic Expo, or E3 2018, in Los Angeles, California. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

Fortnite creator Epic Games has raised $1.25 billion in a funding round from KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, aXiomatic, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners, the company announced on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Epic was valued at around $15 billion on Friday, nearly double a previous estimation made by Bloomberg in July, which put the company at an $8 billion valuation. Epic did not disclose whether it raised new capital or if existing shareholders sold their shares.

Partners in the investment groups involved in the raise include Golden State Warriors co-owners Peter Guber and Bruce Karsh, Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis and Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, all who co-chair at aXiomatic. AXiomatic is also the parent company of Team Liquid, one of esports' oldest teams.

AXiomatic CEO Bruce Stein told ESPN that his group connected with Epic via the Disney Accelerator program, which invests in companies and provides them access to the Disney leadership team for mentorship and support. Both Epic and aXiomatic were chosen to participate in that program in July 2017. Disney is the parent company of ESPN.

Chinese megacorp Tencent previously invested $330 million in Epic in March 2013 and absorbed 40 percent of the developer, Epic founder Tim Sweeney told Polygon. In early 2018, Tencent committed an additional $15 million to invest in the Fortnite esports ecosystem.

Founded in 1991 by Sweeney, Epic has had a number of successful game titles and its game engine, Unreal, has become the backbone of many popular video games across the world. In mid-2017, the company took Fortnite -- a cooperative shooter-survival game -- and built a battle royale game mode after several other games, like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, had success in that genre. Since then, Fortnite has become the most successful game title in the world.

Between the battle royale mode's release in September 2017 to May 2018, Epic is estimated to have brought in more than $1.2 billion in in-game purchases, according to a report by SuperData Research.

Around sports, media and entertainment, Fortnite character dances have become a global phenomenon. French soccer player Antoine Griezmann famously performed one of the game's dances at the World Cup final in July.

Many other athletes across the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB have expressed their love for the game, with some even streaming on Twitch. Beginning Friday, Epic will host a three-day tournament and interactive experience in an entire convention hall in front of thousands at TwitchCon in San Jose, California.

Epic previously hosted a similar experience around the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June at the Banc of California Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Football Club.