Mecum Auctions has moved into Fortnite — and not as a logo on a loading screen. The auction house has partnered with VLO Studios’ Sunday Car Club to build a fully operational virtual auction experience inside the game’s dedicated island, where players can buy, sell, and consign digital collector cars using mechanics pulled directly from Mecum’s live auction format. The announcement dropped May 8, 2026, timed to the opening day of Dana Mecum’s 38th Original Spring Classic at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.
The audience Mecum is chasing here is staggering. Fortnite carries more than 650 million registered players globally — a figure that dwarfs every collector car auction house’s combined mailing list by several orders of magnitude. The overwhelming majority of those players are younger than the traditional collector car buyer by a generation or two. That is precisely the point.
How the Auction Works Inside the Game
Sunday Car Club occupies its own Fortnite island, accessible via code 1338-2425-5585, and functions as what VLO Studios calls gaming’s first car culture platform built inside Fortnite — a digital city built around collecting, customizing, trading, and displaying vehicles. Within that environment, a Mecum auction runs every 30 minutes in the island’s downtown hub, open to all players regardless of where they sit in the progression system.
The consignment flow mirrors the real-world process with deliberate care. A player lists a virtual vehicle. A Mecum Transport truck arrives at their in-game garage to collect it. The car then crosses the block on Mecum’s signature red carpet before stopping on a center-stage turntable — the same visual grammar fans recognize from Kissimmee, Indy, and Monterey. Bidding opens, players compete in real time, the hammer falls. These mechanics are not decorative. This is a functioning marketplace.
Select vehicles from the live Indy auction — where 2,500 collector cars are expected to cross the block through May 16 — are also available inside the game, creating a direct thread between the physical event in Indianapolis and what players are doing on their screens.
Why Mecum Is Making This Move Now
“We’re taking the Mecum auction experience global in a way we never have before, bringing it directly to millions of players and future collectors inside one of the world’s biggest platforms.” — Breeann Poland, Director of Marketing and Communications, Mecum Auctions
The timing reflects a collector car market in transition. Hagerty data shows auction and online sales of collectible cars surged 10% in 2025 to $4.8 billion, with online transactions alone climbing 12% to $2.5 billion. Baby boomers are aging out of active buying. Generation X, millennials, and Gen Z are reshaping demand — pulling desirable model years younger, toward high-performance machinery of the 1990s and beyond. Hagerty projects that seven of 2026’s top ten auction results will be post-1990 vehicles. The average model year of cars fetching $1 million or more at auction was 1972 in 2020; it has since moved to 1984.
Mecum itself opened 2026 with a $445 million total sales haul at Kissimmee in January — a new house record, doubling the prior year — including two Ferrari Enzos that sold for $17.9 million and $11.1 million respectively. The business is performing. This Fortnite move is not a distress signal; it is an offensive play to own the next generation before a competitor does.
The Bigger Picture
For many younger enthusiasts, video games were the first place they ever encountered a Ferrari F40, a Dodge Viper GTS, or a Porsche 911 GT1 — long before they stood in a paddock or walked an auction floor. Racing franchises and automotive brands have understood this for years. What Mecum is attempting goes a step further: not just brand exposure, but actual auction participation, building the habits and instincts of a bidder inside an environment where tens of millions of young people already spend hours each week.
The classic car industry is projected to grow from $40.8 billion in 2025 to $94.13 billion by 2035, a CAGR of 8.7%. Capturing the collectors who will drive that growth means meeting them where they are. Right now, that is Fortnite.
The live Mecum Indy auction runs through May 16 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, with ESPN+ providing 24 hours of live coverage beginning May 13. Single-day admission is $30; three-day passes are $75; children 12 and under are admitted free. Bidder registration starts at $200. The Sunday Car Club island launches alongside the event — whether it outlasts Indy week has not yet been confirmed.
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