In its less-than-two-years, Fortnite has grown from being a small and unknown title to becoming an unavoidable brand that’s featured on everything from action figures to bedding.
It wasn’t all good news for developer Epic Games though. Along with its huge commercial popularity came a slew of younger players, accusations of being too addictive and a generally overhyped vibe that caused battle royale fans to migrate to newer, fresher fields.
The likes of PUBG have been thoroughly enjoyed, put down and forgotten about thanks to issues with lag and servers, and even new kid on the block, Apex Legends, is starting to turn players’ stomachs for the same reasons.
Through the over-saturation of the battle royale market to the many, many lawsuits taken up against Epic Games, the company and Fortnite have lived through it all.
It’s still somewhat surprising to see that Fortnite‘s playerbase is actually still increasing, despite the game’s many controversies.
Back in March of this year, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney told Engadget that the game had 250 million players, an increase of around 50 million from the end of 2018.
Gamesradar reports that since then, the record number of concurrent players has also shot up, peaking at a huge 10.8 million during Marshmello’s in-game live concert.
When Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends launched in February this year, it was expected to hit Epic Games hard.
Respawn’s free-to-play battle royale game shared a lot of similarities with Fortnite, but offered newer and more intuitive play for those who’d had their fill of Epic Games.
For a while, Apex became the most-viewed game streamed on Twitch, but that’s now a title that’s back in the hands of the unstoppable giant that is Fortnite.
Will the Fortnite love ever die? Well, with near-constant updates from Epic Games, and no other battle royale game yet to take its crown, it’s seeming more and more unlikely that the sun will never set on Fortnite.
Featured Image Credit: Epic Games