Less than a year ago "Fortnite" was just a passion project for the developers at Epic Games. Today it is the most popular video game the world has ever seen. "Fortnite" is also one of the most accessible games ever as it is available on PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and iOS. With the current demand, it is only a matter of time until the game arrives on Android devices.
What is 'Fortnite'?
Most gamers will be familiar with the third person builder/shooter. For those who are unfamiliar, "Fortnite" has two modes, “Save The World” and “Battle Royale.” "Fortnite Save The World" is a player vs.
environment campaign mode that can be played solo or with friends. "Fortnite Battle Royale," the more popular of the two modes, is a player vs. player game type. In the battle royale mode, players drop from a bus onto the map and must find loot while trying to outlive their opponents, last team alive wins. This mode can also be played solo or with a squad of up to four. Both game modes feature building with materials found on the map.
Epic Games made its name off of other third-person shooters such as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. "Fortnite" has blown up in popularity and has dwarfed most other games in terms of player volume and revenue.
The numbers
According to digital game sales tracker, SuperData Research "Fortnite" generated $296 million in revenue for April, alone.
SuperData Research tells us that number is more than double the revenue from February. At this staggering pace, "Fortnite" will quickly generate more than $1 billion by the end of the year.
SuperData Research crunched the numbers, and "Fortnite" also has surpassed its competition in number of unique twitch views. Dating back to February, "Fortnite" has eclipsed all other competition in Twitch unique views.
Way back in February Epic Games announced that they “hit a new peak of 3.4 million concurrent players.” This number comes before the release of the IOS version of the game, at the time it was almost certain that "Fortnite" had become the most popular game in the world. Now with the IOS version of the game and the increasing popularity, there is little doubt the game is the most popular one of all time.
There is a sizeable e-sport fan base for "Fortnite" that recently received some good news from the developers. On May 21st Epic Games announced that it would put forward a prize claim of $100 million for a competitive 2018-2019 season of "Fortnite."
Listening to the community
In recent developer updates, Epic Games said they would continue to support the competitive scene in significant ways, and days later they made the $100 million announcement. The developers have also listened to a multitude of community suggestions and user feedback, the results of which can be seen in the patch to patch updates. The nerf of weapons land tactics like the double-pump shotgun are some of the most recent examples.
More noticeable changes like taking the guided missile launcher out of the game and first shot accuracy also comes by way of user feedback.
The Epic Games development team has consistently pushed out new exciting content in the form of character skins, emotes, and other in-game gear. Epic continues to update and transform the map regularly to keep things fresh while providing a great user experience.