Old copy of Fortnite from before it went free-to-play sells for $42,500, and while you might think that's weird, remember that the person who bought it probably won't play it anyway

A pristine copy of Fortnite for Xbox One has just sold at auction for an eye-watering $42,500 USD. You might reasonably wonder why a free-to-play game would command such a price, but this is a case of several oddball bits of Fortnite history – and the price-hiking effect of Wata grading – combining into one massive price tag.

This sealed, 2017 copy of Fortnite was given a 10 A++ grade by Wata Games, which essentially means that it's as close to perfect condition as it gets. Slabbed in an extra layer of plastic with Wata's grade attached, this copy sold for $42,500 on November 21 through Heritage Auctions (as spotted by IGN).

While the box simply says "Fortnite," this is an OG copy of what's now known as Fortnite: Save the World – the four-player co-op game that Epic originally launched in July 2017, a few months before the free-to-play Battle Royale mode would come out and completely take over the game's identity.

An OG retail copy of Fortnite has some value simply as a historical curiosity, and recent eBay listings suggest that you'd generally expect to pay $40-$70 for a normal, used Xbox One version. A sealed copy, however, is something entirely different.

See, these early versions of Fortnite come with an Early Access Pack code, granting you access to a handful of exclusive cosmetics and the ability to earn V-Bucks from playing Save the World. There's no limit on the amount of V-Bucks you can get here, which means anyone with an Early Access Pack – or as it eventually became known, a Founders Pack – can grind Save the World for effectively infinite V-Bucks over time.

Epic suspended digital sales of Founders Packs in 2020, which means that these original Early Access Pack codes are now extremely valuable. For that reason, sealed original copies of Fortnite with unused codes can sell for upwards of $1,000, and the codes themselves can command similar prices on their own.

It's just, you know, Wata grading adding another $41,000 or so of value to the package. Is it worth that price? Somebody was willing to pay it, so I guess by definition it is worth that amount of money. But there's more than a little irony in the fact that this perfect-graded version will likely remain forever in a slab of plastic, with the codes that made this version of the game so sought-after in the first place locked away where no one can reach them.

When does Fortnite Chapter 7 start? You can follow that link for all the details on launch.