The story of how Fortnite came to be is rather interesting in its own right. In short, the people at Epic Games came with the basic premise of combining a construction game with a shooter game in a game jam, which is what led to Fortnite: Save the World. However, when they saw the success of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, they realized that their creation could support a battle royale mode as well, thus leading to Fortnite Battle Royale. For people who are unsure about what separates one from the other, the simplest answer is that Fortnite: Save the World is about player versus environment, whereas Fortnite Battle Royale is about player versus player. It is the latter version that has caused the title to explode in popularity, as shown by the fact that it is available on popular platforms that its counterpart is not.
How Popular Is Fortnite?
For starters, it is important to note that both Fortnite: Save the World and Fortnite Battle Royale are considered to be in early access, meaning that they are considered to be incomplete at this point in time but have been made available to interested individuals so as to provide them with an in-depth look at what they can expect from the completed versions. Regardless of that fact, both Fortnite: Save the World and Fortnite Battle Royale have proven themselves to be smash hits.
First, this can be seen in how Fortnite: Save the World had managed to secure one million players by August of 2017, which would have been just before the release of its counterpart. Second, Fortnite Battle Royale has managed to secure 125 million players by June of 2018, which is adding on the new players from its then recent introduction to the Nintendo Switch. Combined, the two versions are believed to have brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Epic Games in each month of 2018, which is an astonishing number to say the least.
How Did Fortnite Become So Popular?
Naturally, since Fortnite is so successful, it should come as no surprise to learn that there are a lot of people out there who are interested in seeing whether they can replicate its success or not. Unfortunately, there is no secret trick to Fortnite‘s success. Instead, said phenomenon seems to be founded on a number of factors, which have combined to produce something that is much more than the sum of its parts.
For example, Fortnite is free. This is important because it makes it much easier for it to spread to interested individuals, particularly since it has been made available on such a wide range of platforms. However, it is important to note that none of the core experience of Fortnite is locked behind a paywall, which is a huge source of frustration for a lot of people playing a lot of free games that come with in-game transactions. Instead, Epic Games generates its revenues from cosmetics, which is a business model practiced by some other game companies as well.
On top of this, it might be a contender in a well-populated genre, but it is a contender that managed to stand out even when it had just been launched. In part, this is because it has elements from the construction game genre, meaning that it is far from being a simple and straightforward battle royale shooter. However, some people have also noted the very distinctive look of the game, which contributes to an overall joyful atmosphere that is very pleasant to be immersed in. This is particularly important because the battle royale genre can be pretty generic, meaning that Fortnite can come as something of a fresh breath of air.
Of course, it is also important to note that Fortnite has been implemented in a very competent manner, which is always stressed but not necessarily always pulled off in a successful manner. After all, even the best ideas are nothing more than wishful dreaming if they can’t be executed in a capable manner, which is something that the people behind Fortnite have managed to do very well. Summed up, these factors combined with the fact that a sufficiently large number of players can be self-sustaining should go some way to explaining why Fortnite is such a huge success.
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