FaZe Clan Financial Collapse

Overview

FaZe Clan Financial Collapse refers to the slow financial decline of the well-known esports gaming organization FaZe Clan that started in early 2022 and continued into 2023. Because of FaZe Clan's iconic image and recognition online and in the mainstream gaming industry, as well as having Snoop Dogg on their board of directors, the financial troubles afflicting the gaming group have been the subject of memes and ridicule online as word spread of its struggles.

Background

In early 2022, FaZe clan attempted to file as a public company that would be listed and sold on the stock exchange, hoping it would raise money for further expenditures within the company. These expenditures were things FaZe had become known for, with the group famously spending over $30 million on a "FaZe house" in 2020, as revealed in the house tour uploaded to the FaZe YouTube^[1] channel on March 16th, 2020, which acquired over 7.6 million views in three years (shown below).

The initial filing had to be redone because the group's estimated value was just over $9 million short of what was expected, causing financial doubt in the organization to start. On May 12th, 2022, YouTuber and Twitch streamer Ludwig uploaded a video going over FaZe's early economic struggles and how they were purportedly compounded by lack of proper management in regards to their recent streams and contests, earning over 1.4 million views in one year (shown below).

Developments

When FaZe went public on July 19th, 2022, the price quickly started to fall, ending the day at just over $9 a share. This minuscule share value subsequently invited hot takes and discussions online as people started to dissect the reasoning behind the stock not doing well in its debut.

For example, on July 20th, Dean Takahashi, known for his struggles with the Cuphead tutorial, predicted a major factor in the price drop, tweeting^[2] it out and ultimately proving his speculation true (shown below).

Eight months later, the FaZe stock price continued to lose value day after day until it was well below a dollar in value. Moist esports owner Cr1tikal uploaded a YouTube^[3] video on March 15th, 2023, in which he goes over several recent issues the company has had, especially with FaZe member Teeqo uploading a video on his recent struggles with the company, getting over 2.5 million views in two days (shown below).

Online Reactions

In February and March 2023 following new developments of FaZe's purported financial issues, many online began reacting to the news as discourse spread on social media. For example, on February 23rd, 2023, TikToker bradleymartynclub posted a video with the caption "Faze Rain talks about the downfall of Faze Clan," receiving over 6,300 likes in roughly three weeks (shown below).

On March 2nd, 2023, TikToker zeff_gaming then posted another clip speculating that "Faze Clan as a company might be officially dead here soon and delisted from the Nasdaq," accumulating over 65,800 likes in two weeks (seen below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References